


Maybe It's Magic

by makunara



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-08
Packaged: 2017-11-07 05:45:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 77,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/427546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makunara/pseuds/makunara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Kakashi's new mission is a little more than they bargained for. Looking after a hostile girl was not in the job description! While Kakashi feels like he's losing his mind, the enemy lies in wait. Can he afford to worry about himself when there's a hidden danger that needs to be discovered?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Taken

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _You broke through all of my confusion,  
the ups and the downs, and you still didn't leave.  
I guess that you saw what nobody could see.”_  
—Kelly Clarkson (“You Found Me”)

“Granny, even though I've totally earned it, you should still be the Hokage. I can wait out a few more years until you croak, that is!”

Naruto Uzumaki had said it optimistically albeit a few days after returning to the village—he had just killed his best friend and assisted in the assassination of one of Konohagakure's founders, Madara Uchiha. He lay broken, bruised, and battered in a hospital bed next to his only surviving master, Kakashi.

Team Kakashi had asked for their team to remain the same in formation though Sai would be the team's permanent replacement for Sasuke Uchiha. For the last two Uchiha had finally been defeated at the summit in the Land of Iron; Kakashi Hatake was the only remaining user of the Sharingan.

The few first missions back on their feet were interesting to say the least. Kakashi was still in the middle of healing physically and mentally as the fight against Madara had been strenuous in more ways than one, so Yamato took up the head of the unit as was custom these days anyway. Though Yamato felt odd still heading the team called Team Kakashi when his name was clearly not his senpai's. Naruto had finally learned how to control the kyuubi inside of him; Yamato's need to be around to suppress the chakra of the nine-tailed beast was no longer required.

With the copy ninja physically and mentally ready to go for the first mission he had gone on over the course of four months, the four members of Team Kakashi met—late on his part as always—in the Hokage's office for their mission.

“We received a letter yesterday from a small, little-known village south of Kumogakure. It’s a kidnapping—so, we’ve placed it under a B-ranked mission considering we don’t necessarily know the strength of the terrorists at hand. But we have concluded that apparently this victim is important enough. What other reason would the man that sent for our help have to put up so much money to have them rescued?”

“Room and board?” Sai's voice questioned in response to the female one that had given the information. His hair was dark black and his skin pale as snow; his voice was young, soft, crisp, but he spoke with serious intentions.

“On the house of the guy you’d be working for,” the Fifth Hokage answered, letting the scroll marked _B-rank_ curl up in her hand before she placed it between scrolls _A-rank_ and _C-rank_. “What, did you think I was kidding when I said that this guy wasn’t messing around with his payment?”

“Apparently he is serious,” Kakashi's full-grown lazy voice responded while he scratched the back of his head. “Alright, sounds like we’ve got some work on our hands, you three.”

The trio of Kakashi Hatake's team—consisting of the boisterous Naruto, the collected Sai, and the feminine pink-haired Sakura Haruno—nodded in approval seeing as this was the most exciting mission they had heard of lately. “Hopefully, it draws out a bit,” Sakura added. “We’ve been spending too much time doing practically nothing around here—I want a change of scenery.”

“We’ll see,” Kakashi answered with a warm smile. Naruto had already began his trek out the door of the Hokage’s office. “. . . Hold on, Naruto. We need to get a general direction of where we’re headed.”

“General direction?” Tsunade repeated with a crazed intonation in her voice. “The kidnappers have been at this more than once and are stupid enough to keep the same location. Checking in with the client first isn't necessary. Your squad is headed for the Lightning Mountains just northeast of here, Kakashi—it’s the hindrance bordering us from the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Caves are your best bet. Lucky for you, the location isn’t too far off to the place you’ll be returning the victim, so you won’t be traveling any extreme distances.”

••••••••••

“Extreme distances, my ass!” the noisy blond shinobi ranted upon climbing up another series of cliffs and hills over the rocky mountain ledge. “Granny went and lied her ass off, like always, trying to make the whole situation seem easy just so we would go on the mission. Why does she always give us the ones that seem to be the furthest away?”

“I believe you are turning into our friend Shikamaru-san,” Sai commented, finding the climb to be no large or terrible feat whatsoever. He and the other two members of Team Kakashi were at least a full nine paces in front of their lagging comrade whom, at the time, had decided to stop and sulk on a rock that was relatively flat and able to be sat upon.

“Naruto!” screamed a shrill and highly annoyed voice from above him, his name hitting his back. “We’re on a mission. This is no time to be acting like a child!”

“I’m rebelling against Granny’s lies. If she would have just told us it was gonna be a hard trek, I would have at least been prepared, but she just _had_ to make things seem easier than they seem.”

“Definitely Shikamaru-san . . .” murmured Sai once more while grasping the next highest rock and regrouping with his female companion and their leader.

“The early bird catches the worm, Naruto,” a chastising voice from the eldest, Kakashi groaned down at him. “If you’re so intent on being left behind go right on ahead, but we’re actually hopeful in retrieving the hostage before any damage is done. Think about someone other than yourself for once, hmm?”

A minor speech, but effective at that, he figured. Motioning his willing members of the team to follow, a reluctant and angry blond shinobi rose to his feet, leaping up a few more rocks only to be right behind the bunch. “Well, I can tell you that’s NOT my nin-dou,” he practically hissed, proceeding to jump high enough that he landed in front of them. He was still the same old Naruto despite his grouchiness.

Kakashi gave an unseen, satisfied smirk.

They went that way, in the same formation for a good hour or so, excluding the frequent pausing and resting as well as actually planning out how to retrieve the hostage.

“I don’t see why this guy’s so important to this doctor . . .” Naruto complained as he heaved a sigh and rotated his shoulders. “We’re going all the way up into the cold mountains—there’s snow here.” He firmly planted an ebony sandal into the crisp white powder. “It’s almost summer, there shouldn’t be any damn snow here—”

“Girl,” Sai retorted while he continued to murmur underneath his breath of how frigid the atmosphere was.

The blond rose an eyebrow then furrowed both, fist clenched. “What’d you call me?!”

“The _hostage_ is a girl,” he restated with less confusion on Naruto’s behalf.

“How do _you_ know that?” the riled boy growled back in response to his smoothness and knowledge on the subject.

“I actually read the speculations about the mission, and I know the description of the hostage and what _she_ looks like,” he merely stated, now turning to follow the two others who had begun to trek up the mountain again.

Once more, Naruto growled, hissed under his breath, then rose to his feet as the wind whipped at his back and he fought the urge to shiver. “Dammit, why couldn’t we go to the Sand where it’s warm?”

They paused, once more, upon reaching a rather tall cliff and an assortment of small caves littered about. Tsunade's advice on the location resonated in all of their memories. “. . . All the more fun to _find_ her in,” Sakura frowned at the number of them, rubbing her arms to keep herself warm.

“Split up from here,” Kakashi ordered firmly. “Sai, Sakura, you take the lot to the east, Naruto and I will head for the west side.” He pulled a kunai swiftly from his pouch behind him and marked the nearest jutted rock to his left. “Meet here in a couple of hours.”

“And if we don’t find anything?” Sakura questioned in response.

The leader shook his head lightly. “Not likely. Keep on your toes.”

The four spread in separate directions.

••••••••••

It was approximately an hour later and Naruto had already returned to find a healing Sakura and a wounded Sai. “What the hell happened to you?”

“You’re back early,” Sakura snapped.

“I ran into the enemy,” Sai stated. “Obviously.”

“And?” he asked with a raised brow.

“And I took care of the major threats. Where’s Kakashi?”

“Still searching, I guess,” Naruto shrugged with an eye on the healing wound. “No luck in finding her?”

“We searched every cave . . . well, except the last two, but I didn’t sense anything,” Sai told him firmly as Sakura completed her handiwork. “No sign of the girl.”

Naruto was already growing impatient, firmly tapping his foot in the snow. “. . . Kakashi-sensei’s late, _again_.”

“Um, it wouldn’t surprise me, but he’s not late. We were at it for only an hour, Naruto,” Sakura replied with a bit of dry humor to lighten the situation.

“How can he not be finished searching if we all are—?”

••••••••••

The tips of his silvery-colored hair brushed across the low opening of the cave, hand gripped firmly upon the stalactite obscuring his way from further entering the crevice.

This was cave number nine. There were only a few others to go, and he could only figure the others’ luck was much better than his given the results thus far of his search.

He applied enough chakra to the rock to cause it to crumble where his hand pressed against it, his fingers tingling as he did so. It smelled differently in here and not just because of the cloud of rock and dust that had just formed from the rock’s collapse. The copy ninja checked his glove where the rock had been in his grasp to make sure he wasn’t bleeding, and his assumption was correct. So, that smell, the smell of blood had to be coming from . . .

“Another move already? Can I ask you to just put me out of my misery now . . . ?” he heard a rugged shivering and chattering voice speak lowly from a bit within the cave's depths. “I’m not going to stick around anymore for you all to bother me.”

The wind sent a chill against his back and down into the cave, closer towards the voice. Then he heard the shivering and raspy breaths of the shuddering female as he neared her cautiously. “. . . And I’m not moving to another cave again,” she managed with a shiver until he was in front of her face, crouched down with a firmness about his expression.

Her lips were frozen, a dark grayed-purple hue, her face drained color-wise, and her teeth refused to stop their chattering. He noticed the life had almost left her hazed over eyes . . . they might have once been a lively green color, and a deep slash had been cast into her left shoulder near her neck and collarbone. Amazingly, the blood was still freshly running and unfrozen. He almost froze in place when he saw her closer. Her form, face, features. She looked almost exactly like . . .

He shook the thought from his mind. “Sorry to get your hopes up, but you aren’t dying today,” Kakashi spoke to her reassuringly as he glimpsed her long chocolate hair concealing her face like curtains. He managed that fake cheesy smile with closed eyes before hoisting her up as he began to maneuver his way out of the cave.

At first she grimaced from being moved with that wound about her neck, then her pain turned to anger. “Are you deaf? I said leave me to die.”

“Your guardian says otherwise,” he spoke lowly as a precaution to hinder getting caught by the enemy.

The girl snarled, tried to writhe free, but was only suppressed by a firmer grip from this strange and all-too-calm shinobi. “I don’t care if you’re keeping me alive for your sadistic pleasure so he can suffer. Kill me and get it over with.”

“You’re really not that smart, are you?” Kakashi now commented with an exasperated tone to his voice.

“You’re one to talk.” As injured as she was, she was most definitely refusing to allow her pride to be taken, what was left of it rushing to her head and clouding her judgment. “I could care less who you are. I’m just sick of being abducted left and right. Do me the favor and kill me already, bastard.”

He paused, at the outside of the cave, nearly about to bound off to return to the meeting place before he slid his headband above his covered eye to the point that it rested evenly upon his forehead, his Sharingan eye staring at her coldly. “Not a chance.”

••••••••••

“How can he not be finished searching if we all are—?”

“I am,” the copy ninja’s voice carried from behind the lot of the them, still carrying a wounded, unconscious and half-frozen girl in his arms. “She needs tending to when we get down the mountain and away from here. We don’t have much time until the enemy realizes she’s missing from the cave they last moved her to.” Naruto was simply mesmerized by the length of her chocolate-colored hair.

Sakura nodded firmly as Sai pulled a tattered sleeve over the wound she was healing. “It can wait,” he said, the two standing to match the other members of the team.

“Alright, let’s go.”


	2. I: Undermined

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _I'm frightened by what I see, but somehow I know there's much more to come.  
Immobilized by my fear and soon to be blinded by tears.”_  
—Evanescence (“Whisper”)

There is plenty of advice to be found against working on an empty stomach. For the gang summoned to retrieve and now protect the extremely troubled young girl of this local doctor, they would probably need to fulfill their hunger and satisfy their stomachs if they were to be fully prepared to handle the task ahead. However, at the moment, the quartet didn’t actually seem to think that the frightened and miserable girl was too much of a handful right now. What . . . all they would need to do is watch her and make sure that she had very little interaction with anyone, not to mention make sure she didn’t run off with anyone—at this point almost anybody could be a suspect albeit the doctor perhaps.

Thankfully for the full house, with the exception of the still resting girl, the doctor was not only skilled with knowledge of the human body, but how to fulfill the needs of it too. Yes, the doctor, amazingly, was a fantastic cook, and all were eating graciously with the exception of the silver-haired jounin . . . for sentimental reasons, or so his kids thought, his mask remained on at all times. Eating in public was definitely not an option. Besides, the jounin was actually decently skilled in managing his hunger. Currently, he wasn’t really in the mood for much of anything, and the doctor, working on another batch of his sweetened pancakes for the trio of kids wasn’t insulted in the least—well, he couldn’t be now that Sakura had finished telling the story while a reluctant bookworm ninja sighed in exasperation from the very end of the table.

“He doesn’t take off the mask because he has a huge wart!” Naruto followed up with his usual wisecracks while the subject of their conversation pretended not to notice, but instead, sat at the table seemingly gazing off out the window of the kitchen. “Either that or he has a scar even worse than the one over his Sharingan.”

“The former, I doubt,” Sai corrected his blond teammate with a bit of an apprehensive tone in his voice and a modest smile spread over his face.

“Ah yes, Hatake-san, I meant to ask you about that. Some sort of injury, yes? It seems as if the scar was treated rather well and quickly. The only reason it appears so visible, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s extremely deep.”

“Healed by one of the best . . .” he spoke sentimentally as he rose a brow at Naruto stuffing his face with syrup dribbled all over his face. It was highly unlikely for the man to consider his past albeit the times he spent intently staring upon the memorial stone back home in Konoha. Yet he dwelled upon Rin and Obito for a few moments, eyes clouded with daydreaming and pensive thought as his kids and the doctor carried on in their conversation.

“. . . I doubt you all will have any work today except to stick around the house,” the doctor told them, finishing his cooking and pausing to pull his half-moon spectacles from the bridge of his nose and clean them warily. “Kaori needs plenty of rest, and frostbite is no painless thing to heal from.”

So, that was her name. Finally, the group of ninjas learned the girl’s name they had rescued the morning after the incident. Naruto blinked at it, his mind too busy on finishing the food before him. A silent Sai took firm note of it but could care less, and Sakura smiled, taking it into account immediately.

“I healed Kaori-san to the best of my abilities,” Sakura spoke with a weak smile on her face. Truly, she was mesmerized by this man—he was a doctor, and a strikingly good-looking one at that, but he performed all of his practices with regular medicines and antidotes. Nothing chakra-based or involved. _Maybe Tsunade-sama had put me into mind when she assigned the mission to the team,_ she thought happily. At the very least, she would have to keep her eyes peeled and her ears ready and alert.

Alert, yes. And ironically enough some faint yet very loud tunes resonated from the ceiling as it shook from an object pelting it from above reaching not only Sakura’s ears but the entire lot of them. It managed to pull Kakashi out of his thoughtful state.

“Whassat noise?” Naruto mumbled drowsily-sounding between chews of fluffy pancakes. 

“Music,” Sai said simply, arms folded without a change in expression on his face as he heard the same muffling tones. Naruto growled lowly at his obvious responses. He wasn’t that much of an idiot.

But the doctor seemed to know exactly what it was, an angry and exasperated slam of his hand on the counter making half of them jump. “I’m sorry. I lied,” he apologized. Oddly, however, it was a very annoyed and caustic tone of voice, one curtailed with a sharp laugh right afterwards. Slowly he placed his glasses back on his now livid face, raven hair falling in his eyes.

It was fast paced, and fittingly accompanying it, the sound and banging of running footsteps from overhead shook the house. Then a screaming voice to add, supposedly “singing” the lyrics along with the singer as the music proceeded to grow louder. A distressed doctor pulled up the nearest chair and sat abruptly in it as the group of young ninja did the exact opposite and hung against the doorway, hearing the music clearer from the entrance to the living area.

Sheets fell from the banister over head, draped over the railing and touching the floor as the resonating sound of the girl’s voice before she came sprinting down the stairs, strewing another sheet down the railing as she passed.

The girl went like that for a few minutes, eyes firmly shut with a grin on her face as she danced and sang as if no one was watching her. Ironically, and not to her knowledge, a trio of ninjas just a couple of years younger than her stood in the doorway, half smiling at the way she danced carefree and half laughing at the fact someone would do something that embarrassing.

It went that way for about two more minutes, the group’s leader staring perplexedly into the living room with raised brows and emotionless eyes. His view was only to be obscured a fraction of a second later before the handsome yet livid doctor pushed his way past the doorway, past the trio of young ninjas who immediately stopped laughing and folded his arms, light gray eyes piercing her until she opened her own eyes to stop and gape, gasping.

All at once, the pain that she was supposed to be in flooded to her all at once. A migraine-like headache buzzed at the forefront of her brain. The completely healed wound in her shoulder even throbbed as a reminder. She saw the three standing in the door, the ninja that had taken her out of the cave—all the people she thought were in the dream. They were real. She had really been abducted. Again.

“Kaori . . .” the doctor began slowly, firmly, keeping his tone down. “Go back to your bed . . . now, before—”

”NINJA?!” the girl cried out, the full extent of her voice being made known. It was a raspy voice, one that a smoker would have from years of huffing at cigarettes and cigars, but completely natural on her part and uncontrollable. Her face grew with rage as the song began to end and fade. “What are NINJA doing here?!” she continued on, screaming as she pushed past him. “They–they–You _hired_ them, didn’t you?!” She spun around, eyes wide, bright kelly-green, and furious. “You _know_ how I feel about them!”

“You’re supposed to fight fire with fire, Kaori,” he snapped back, loudly while Naruto ground his teeth at the mere thought of being hated for no reason, at least to his knowledge. “How else would I have been able to get you back if those ninja assassins had abducted you again?”

“And you’re supposed to let me die! I'm not worth the trouble you're going to!” she, again, cried in protest, eyes fresh with tears before she jabbed a finger past the trio standing in the doorway and over at the lazy copy ninja sitting, un-phased as he watched her. “ _He_ didn’t kill me like I asked him to!”

“Because it’s not what you want, Kaori,” he retaliated. “I paid good money to have them rescue you and keep you under close surveillance for a while.”

She couldn’t believe her ears, and her head was throbbing from all the thoughts being processed two or three streams at a time. “Wait . . . surveillance?! What have I done wrong to be put under surveillance?!” Her brown hair was slinging every which way when her head turned violently from side to side, eyebrows raising in confusion and practical sadness.

“Nothing!” he shouted, keeping his voice low, even still. His black hair was in his eyes, and with a hand he cast it back, backwards to lay flat on his scalp. “Nothing. But it’s a precaution so this doesn’t keep happening.”

Her lip trembled, then she bit back a crying spell. “But I hate them! I promise I won’t leave the house, but I am _not_ going to be supervised like a child,” Kaori shouted angrily, her fists shaking and nails digging into the palm of her hand. Seconds later, she stormed back up the stairs, retreated to her room and slammed the door at an awesome magnitude. Naruto and Sakura both jumped involuntarily before gazing at the floor, unsure of what to say.

“I apologize for her . . . _insanity,”_ the doctor stated gruffly, trying to bring humor in to lighten the situation. “Her mother insisted before she died that she never trust any ninja because of this whole ordeal.”

“What ordeal?” Naruto asked, a frown on his face before he approached the man and sat down on the couch, Sakura and Sai following pursuit. Sai remained in a standing position. “There’s a problem with her and ninjas, then what is it?”

The doctor sighed, removed his spectacles once again and cleaned them with the end of his shirt as the group’s sensei joined them, hands stuffed in his pockets, still impassive. “Her father was never really a father to her. He slept with a foreign woman, her mother, and Kaori was the result of the whole affair. He was only meant to be with one woman in the first place, given the fact that his position required him to produce an heir with the same blood as he had.”

“And what position was that?” Sakura asked, intently listening with firm eyes before the handsome doctor replaced his glasses upon the bridge of his nose.

“The Raikage,” he said simply as if it had no meaning. “Of the Village Hidden in the Clouds.”

“You mean to tell me, that girl is the daughter of the Raikage?” Sai asked with a bit of a surprised laugh in his voice. “Who would have thought? She’s so ignorant on how we work. She hates us, after all.”

“Yes, but only because her mother bade her do so,” the doctor replied once more. “This man, her father, apparently had many enemies. So much so that they found out about his affair with this woman and threatened to leak his secret to the people of his village. And so out of fear, he killed himself.”

Kakashi had heard of the situation. Nearly nine years had passed since the previous Raikage had committed seppuku. Much like his father, but apparently for different reasons.

“So, no longer able to kill their main target, the assassins went after the nearest thing he had. That being Kaori’s mother and herself.”

Naruto blinked, confused. “But her mother . . . she was in love with a man who was a ninja. Why should she tell her daughter to hate them all?”

A frown and downcast look came about the doctor’s face, eyes colder than usual and hands clenched tightly. “It wasn’t easy for Kaori to come to grips with. Living in a ninja village, being the daughter of the most esteemed ninja _in_ that village—though she didn’t know it at the time—and then being targeted unfairly and having her mind made up for her by her dying mother? It’s far from simple to process for a ten year old girl.” For a moment, he paused, laughing a bit before he rubbed the side of his head. “Even more so for a girl that was a rather exceptional ninja herself. Yet here she stands, completely loathing of the entire practice of the shinobi way now.”

The group of four sat and stood amazed for a moment—half showed it, the other half did not. And so when the eldest of the four spoke up about it, they finally began to release the breaths they had been holding, the thoughts they had been wondering. This girl—a brat, she seemed—a ninja?

“I have an obligation to speak with her,” the copy ninja said plainly, scratching the back of his head where the headband would have been had he had it tied securely over his Sharingan eye. “Just to set things straight with her while we’re here.”

The raven-haired man nodded while the teacher nodded his students off as if to retreat outside. And so as he trekked upstairs, hands in his pockets, the doctor sighed and returned to the kitchen area to clean up the dishes scattered about the table.

He rapped firmly upon the door with the back of his hand before letting himself in, the music having been turned down to a lower volume and she, not being smart enough to lock the door. She sat, brown hair nearly touching the bed while she twirled an object in her hands, quickly shoving it underneath the bed upon hearing and seeing him enter. Whirling around, she practically hissed and growled all in one glimpse of him. “Come to actually do what I asked?”

“I’m no genie,” he said tiredly. “I don’t grant wishes.”

“Then get out.”

Instead, he shut the door behind him, turned the lock firmly and leaned back against it to avoid all hopes of her trying to let herself out. Though half of him was more aware of her now in the fact that she could probably do something if she retained her abilities. Amazingly, he could even begin to feel the slight impulses of chakra resonating from her. “I know your story—why you’re here.”

“Yeah, because my parents abandoned me?” she shot back. “I mean, I only had a mother who was basically an outcast and father that didn't claim me, yet his enemies still think I'm worthy of hunting down to extract 'revenge' on. Save me the sympathy. Putting me out of my misery would have done me lots better.”

He was correct in his assumption when he had seen her in the cave. As difficult as it was to distinguish what she really looked like in that mangled state, she actually did . . . look just like _her._

His eye turned stone, and she saw the scar over the closed, left one . . . what she had last seen before she melted off into the dream . . . or what she had _thought_ was a dream. “You did something to me with that eye of yours,” she continued on, growling before standing up and trekking over to meet his face, staring at it from a distance. “I remember seeing it spinning.”

“I put you out cold so you would quit being such a pest. I was _trying_ to do my job,” Kakashi explained, face unmoving and expression unchanging from the now firm and stern glance he gave her.

“My head hurts like hell because of it.”

He shrugged. “Couldn't be avoided.”

Exhaling sharply, she growled, fists clenched once more and her nails still digging harshly into the palms of her hands. “You should have killed me or left me to die while you had the chance. Cause now I’m going to make your life miserable for the simple reason that you couldn’t follow orders. That’s all you damned ninja are: soldiers who follow commands. You know what happens when you don’t follow commands, right? You end up—”

”Could you just . . . _shut up_ for five seconds?” he asked lazily, tiredly, but all the same time with a twinge of annoyance in his voice. She was rambling incessantly for one and also bringing up memories of his father. Yes, he knew, unfortunately, what came next. “You end up dead. But I seriously doubt you have the power to bring me down, _ninja._ ” Kaori paused, he thought he saw her gulp, but then decided that he wouldn’t point it out. “Still have a knack for it, obviously. Why else would you still play around with a kunai?”

He was referring to the object he saw her skillfully handling when he came in. She tried to avoid it by wandering over to her stereo and nonchalantly turning the music down. Again, she spun about, folded her arms over her chest and shot him a glare. “I won’t be made a soldier again.”

“I wasn’t asking you to.”

“And I won't be _watched_ by them either,” she protested, raising her voice before stamping the ground harshly with her bare foot. The frostbite had left her feeling totally numb, skin stretched tight around her muscles and bones. So, she winced when the pain shot all the way up her leg from one small abrupt movement.

“I’d advise you get back in bed,” he said before flicking the lock to her door to the side again, unlocking the knob.

“You’re not my guardian,” Kaori hissed in retaliation between gritted teeth. “Or Doc.”

Again, the copy ninja shrugged lackadaisically, face sporting a fake smile with closed eyes. “Correct, but _your guardian, 'Doc,'_ has hired us with me as the head to look after you. So, technically,” he began before exiting and pulling the door behind him. “I am.”


	3. II: Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _It's a sad, sad story when her mother will teach her_  
 _daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.”_  
—Dixie Chicks (“Not Ready To Make Nice”)

The troubled girl fought back a scream as her pale and livid face turned a ghastly shade of red, her blood boiling. “Son of a bitch . . .” she hissed, kicking her bed with the same foot that had been bothering her just seconds earlier. Her anger clouded her senses but not her pain, and she nearly doubled over the bed at the feeling of her toes cracking as they slammed against the underside of the bed.

Holding her foot, she removed her socks only to find the foot she hit a purple hue, a fresh red scrape over her toes. Her entire skin was bluer than normal. “Well, that’s just great,” Kaori growled under her breath, frowning before replacing her skirt back over her legs, the khaki color masking the unhealthy frozen tone of her skin.

Immediately, she heard a rap upon the window, spun about immediately and peered at the object wavering and waving simply from the outside—pale blond hair, deep brown eyes, a dangerously devilish smirk on his partially-shaven face. The scruffy patch of equally flaxen facial hair under his lip went vertically down to his chin. Whatever pain Kaori might have felt the moment before receded almost suddenly as she bolted to the window, unlocked the hinge and sprung it open. An impatient grin was plastered all over her face. She leaned upon the sill with arms under her chest while she stared him in the face.

“Heard the rumors that _someone_ came back over night,” the man said in a crisp accent, picking a few strands of her long hair and sifting them through his rough fingers. “Had to see if they were true.”

“They were,” she said happily, dazzled by his smile. “Back, and horridly enough under some stupid watch by a group of monkeys.”

“You mean shinobi?” he asked with a raised brow, almost incredulously.

Kaori gave a light shrug, smirked and rolled her eyes. “Can’t tell the difference between them.”

The man laughed lightly, looked both ways down below him before staring at her once more, hoping he wouldn’t be causing her any trouble. He pressed his lips firmly against her forehead and quickly pulled away. “Come with me then.”

Kaori didn’t hesitate. Sneaking around the village was what she did best, and when he was with her, she couldn't resist. Quickly, she grabbed a pair of sandals nearest her bed, strapped them on and allowed him to hoist her out of the window due to her weakness and inability to move much at all.

They walked, first around the back of the doctor’s house, making sure they were out of way, then paced through the main streets of the solemn little village in the direction of a barn not too far off in the distance. The man, Masao, wrapped an arm firmly around the tops of her shoulders, keeping in step with her. “Kira and I were seriously worried. The others, too. This has been the, what, fourth time you’ve been abducted in the past—”

”Seven months. But the second attempt was pretty much a failure, remember? It’s starting to get boring. Kind of like an old game for me, you know?” Kaori replied, faking a yawn while laughing. Odd and sadistic, she thought, for her to find humor in the whole situation of being kidnapped and endangering her life.

“You’re looking a bit . . .”

“Blue? Yeah, I know. Apparently, I froze.”

“Walk out here long enough, and you’ll thaw,” Masao told her jokingly with happy eyes before squeezing the shoulder in his grasp opposite him. She wanted to flinch in pain but it wasn’t so bad, so instead, Kaori gave a reassuring and half-hearted grin. “Where’re we going?” she asked. “The barn?”

“Mmm . . . sorta,” he stated unsurely, lips twisted at an odd angle. “Can’t say for sure.”

She wasn’t sure she liked that response. He flashed her a devilish smirk in return and didn’t say anything more. For a moment or two, she argued, laughing the whole time and trying to get him to speak, laugh or do anything. He maintained that same sinister smirk, and even more sinister it became. “C’mon Masao, tell me!” Kaori persisted, a hostile frown now on her face as she clung to his arm. Still, he continued not to acknowledge her as they kept walking, his face kept straight ahead before he paused, mid-pace, just off the side of the road. The doctor’s house and clinic had finally become obscured completely behind them.

“You really think they’re going to give up just because you have ninjas looking after you now?” Masao asked, finally casting his gaze downward and to the right at her. “Because I seriously think a fifth abduction is very likely.”

Her frown turned downward even more, and her brows furrowed over her eyes as she glared at him with an angry green stare. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re actually _expecting—_?”

It was all too sudden, but for a fraction of a second she felt new presences surrounding behind her. And the next instance, gloved hands were covering her mouth, her screams being totally muffled by the forceful grip this shinobi had on her. “Surprised she’s able to struggle this much,” she heard one out of three say, and Masao stood, expression firm. Her eyes pleaded him to help her, then soon after his role dawned on her.

Her eyes grew narrow, angrier and more treacherously green in the way they held her. With every moment she watched him standing there refusing to help. “If you stop struggling, when we break your arms you it won’t hurt as much,” another said. But the grip the two restrained her had over her was so painfully tight and uncomfortable about her arms and face that she had no choice but to flinch.

She wouldn’t do this again, not after she was in so much pain. For insisting so much on the fact that she wanted to be killed and left to die so badly, she put up a decent fight, but such were the perks of humanity—the will to survive was hard, strong, and nearly impossible to overcome. Now she knew she had to do what she hadn't done in the longest time, but it would get her out of this mess. If only she could still do it correctly.

Kaori realized then and there that she needed water faster than she could call on it herself. For a moment her eyes flicked from Masao to the surroundings behind the building they had dragged her to. She thanked her lucky stars for seeing a wooden pail just inches away from her. Flailing, she managed to throw a good portion of her body towards the wall against where it sat, and she sent her attacker sprawling backwards, spilling the bucket's contents all over the ground beneath them. It was just enough to touch each of them at the soles of their feet.

She managed to bend her left elbow inward, the gloved hands from one of the masked assassins still firmly grasping her upper arms. The joints moved stiffly, but her hand was quick. It wasn’t until she had performed six hand signs that Masao’s eyes widened and realized what she was doing. “She’s trying to do a jutsu!” he yelled fiercely at the three of them.

Almost immediately as he had said it, the one whose hands were not on her made a grab out for her hands a second too late. She hadn’t noticed until just now that Masao had a steady chakra flow, but she felt it rising with the panic in his voice as he had tried to warn them.

A lightning-based jutsu shot out of her left palm, zapping the ground beneath the lot of them. She was the only one that was unaffected as the electric shock shot up through their bodies, the cells in her body accommodated to the combination of the water and lightning combination. Though she had merely gotten them off of her and staggering around, it was far from over.

Both hands together, Kaori formed a series of hand signs, wincing from the pain of the freshly re-opened gash against her shoulder and neck. She had just signaled the last hand sign, palms flat, and a black cloud rose around the base of her feet encircling her body like a revolving ribbon. Simultaneously, four nicely-sized blurs of blue electrifying chakra in the forms of birds shot from her and went to each of the four abductors around her. A loud screech tore out from each of them . . .

. . . Naruto’s head snapped up nearly immediately. Sai stared sternly at his face, and Sakura caught a breath in her chest. Hesitant and wide-eyed, they all stared at each other before busting out the back of the house, past the doctor, and onto the main road. The three all glimpsed around, panicky, alert, eyes darting every which way. “What was that noise?” Naruto inquired almost angrily, his eyebrows low over his blue eyes. And almost abruptly after he had said it, a readied jounin hopped out of an open window in a room he had just previously been in. Though now he was fully equipped, headband and all. He sighed lowly, “Guess who isn’t in her room?”

Their hands released her, and she gasped for breath while her chakra was inside them, shocking and electrifying them from the inside. It was as if they were seizing, their bodies convulsing in place, and their legs somehow still capable of standing. One by one, Masao falling over first, they all toppled to the ground, each glowing blue mass of chakra retreated from their body and returned to hers. She caught her breath, immediately feeling rejuvenated; four lifeless bodies now lay motionless on the ground. Her chakra level (which had just nearly just flatlined) replenished itself, and not to her surprise, increased slightly. After all, electrocuting and stealing the chakra from others was something she had done countless times in her days as a ninja. She didn’t just have a high chakra level by birth.

Four more bodies were coming in her direction first as silhouettes until she recognized them, shaking. “Oh, shit.”

Had it been the fact that she was the reason for their intense faces, she might have rethought not getting herself killed in the first place. But she realized it wasn't entirely her fault upon seeing another masked group of shinobi jump out just in front of them from the woods. She was in no position to perform that jutsu twice, and it didn’t even cross her mind of using it again—once in her current condition would be enough. The group of four took them down easily. Even the pink-haired girl dealt an assaulter one blow and he practically hemorrhaged internally, blood spilling out each orifice. How Kaori would have hated to die by those hands.

Sai stopped and stood firmly in front of Kaori as if to hinder any further attacks that would possibly be intended for her as they most likely were. She noticed how tall he was, towering a full head over her before he glanced back at her, eyes cold and black. Almost as cold as the stare Masao had given her before he had just betrayed her, but still, she could hint a tinge of protection within them as impossible to read as they appeared.

Sai felt her chakra presence and wondered. That cry wasn’t any earthly scream, most certainly not from her. But why would her chakra be so incredibly spiked at a time like this if she had been a dormant ninja all these years . . . or had she?

She watched Naruto, not knowing his name. _That blond-haired kid is really amazing_ , she thought as he had taken out two ninja at practically the same time with a blue ball of chakra that had resonated from his hand.

Only about five more had been in hiding, and she had only been able to feel the presence of the four people around her. Her mind was wracked with fear and worry. Had the man that she had feelings for, Masao, really been in the works the couple of years she had known him, conspiring with these shinobi to have her captured? She almost wanted to cry out of confusion and exasperation, but her eyes were busy set on the fierce ones of the tall black-haired boy in front of her and the girl's relieved sea-foam colored eyes. “Are you alright, Kaori-san?” she asked, a hand automatically rushing to her shoulder. It was cold, and it took Kaori a minute to realize it was chakra pulsing from her palm, the cool waves numbing her body.

“Um . . . yeah,” she spoke barely, truly speechless as she blinked at her, wondering how someone could be a ninja and yet so completely kind-hearted at the same time.

The blond sighed, removed the headband from his head and shook his hair out violently from side to side, cursing and yelling. “Dammit, dammit, dammit!” The older man that had rescued her, the one with silver hair, kept a watchful eye upon her yet spoke to him in a calming tone. She wondered why everyone had gotten so riled up, aside from the obvious fact that her life was still in danger.

“These guys are seriously _stupid_. I mean, who tries another attempt within twenty-four hours of the last failed one?” Naruto hissed angrily before trekking over to Kaori and retying the headband around his head, letting the plate face centered and paralleled at his forehead. “You okay, Kaori-chan?” he asked, giving a short laugh and trying to shoot her a grin almost as big as the ones she gave. She wondered why there were whisker-like markings upon his face, but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

He had used the suffix “-chan” as if to imply closeness or friendship, yet it was the first words she had heard him really speak in acknowledgment towards her. Apart from the circumstances at hand, she couldn’t really help but to give him a weak smile in return. “I’m okay,” she replied, a bit more sure now that Sakura seemed to be healing the now-fresh bruises where the men had grabbed her. It felt so soothing and cool, almost dreamy. Perhaps that was why the previous night and the events in which she was healed by her hands appeared to be a dream.

Her knees had buckled, unknowingly to her, and the pale boy that had been protecting her from the front (who had grown a lot taller given her position now lower to the ground) lifted her back up, wrapping an arm around her back and placing her arm about his shoulder. Kaori blinked, perplexed. Had she done something to receive this sort of treatment?

But that man with the towering silver hair glared at her with his single, heavy, dark gray eye, brow fiercely jutted over his eye as if to see her clearly and more keenly. “What was that noise?” he inquired as the blond-haired boy wrapped his arm over the other boy’s and allowed her other arm to drape over his set of strong shoulders. Again, she blinked, then almost blushed as he shot her another dazzled and reassuring smile. His teeth were perfect.

In response to his question, she shrugged as the pink-haired girl kept a steady pace alongside him. “I’m not sure,” Kaori lied to the jounin, voice shaking apprehensively. Though at the moment, she would love to chew him out, but she was too befuddled by the actions of the three younger shinobi that had ended up helping her out. “Probably from some of the ones that wanted to attack me.”

But Kakashi wasn’t stupid. His eyes had seen the only one not clad in the same clothing style as the others—the one with the pale blond hair and normal clothing such as Kaori’s. “Well, then,” he started, not buying into her story as he sensed her extremely high chakra level. Even he couldn’t believe she could uphold such an enormous level of chakra. More importantly, he had a pretty decent conclusion as to why it was so spiked. Those four didn’t die from just physically fighting them off. “You must have strangled them all to death, perhaps?” he suggested sarcastically while the lot of his kids glared at him with confused yet serious stares. “They didn’t even have any chakra left . . .”

The three young shinobi each had the wheels in their minds turning, wondering how they could all have died by her hands, and more importantly why there was no chakra still remaining in their bodies. Normally chakra took a few hours to be completely absolved from the body, but those four had been freshly killed. Had they used all of it up while Kaori had fought them? Naruto almost gaped in the midst of his pondering.

“And to think you even killed an _innocent_ man in the middle of it,” the jounin continued, his voice mellowing out into a lazy and lackadaisical tone. He wasn’t looking at Kaori when he said it.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, after all. Her face was turned down at the dirt road they had now begun to walk upon once more. And she could see the doctor running at them full speed from the distance. “. . . He wasn’t innocent,” she spoke lowly, her voice hurting as she blinked back tears that wanted to come forth.

 _Mama told me not to trust shinobi_ , she thought to herself as the doctor approached them, his face fearful, eyes wide and alert. _But Masao was obviously one of them, or at least in affiliation with him, and I thought him to be a common man. Maybe she was wrong . . ._ She hated to think about it. The doctor firmly grabbed her shoulders and shook her before inspecting each and every part of her body. _Besides, they saved me from further danger. Maybe not all shinobi are bad. I know I’m not, after all._


	4. III: Tamed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _I've had time to recover now that I know it wasn't love.”_  
—Texas (“I Don't Want A Lover”)

It had been almost a week. A week cooped up inside the house and clinic she knew so dearly. A week in solitude. A week with newfound friends and an ornery old “caretaker” to boot. But the abductions were on hold, for now, at least. Things seemed . . . better than normal.

Except for the fact that Kaori was itching to get outdoors.

Despite minor shock over the situation that had happened a week prior, her normal spirits were still intact. Coping over losing Masao was easier knowing that she had been betrayed. She had cared about him, yes, but her feelings hadn't been blinding to the point that she felt badly for how they ended . . . and how he _really_ ended.

She was chewing on her nails. It had been a terrible habit since she was a child, and even though the doctor had chastised her over it, she didn't let up. Even when he dipped her nails in formaldehyde, the bitter taste didn't stop her from gnawing at them. Peering around the corner, she glimpsed a tuft of blond hair around the bookcase of her books. Slowly, Kaori shuffled in a sort of skipping step towards him, hands oh-so innocently behind her back, fingers fidgeting about in clasped hands. “Hey, umm, Naruto?” she said in a sing-song voice, grinning and waving one hand out in front of her while he spun around blankly to meet her gaze.

“Oh, hey, Kaori-chan. Whatcha need?” He was looking at the books, noticing that none of them would fit his sensei’s interests. There were a few romantic novels, but nothing to the extremities of pornographic or smutty material. However, he hadn’t opened every book on the shelf, so he wasn’t totally sure.

“Nothing much . . .” she lied, biting her lip as she stood beside him, arms folded as she glared at the top of the bookcase and stood, admiring her collection. “You like reading?”

He shook his head with a grin on his face. “No, I don’t read a lot. I’m too busy training, you know? Kakashi-sensei reads all the time though.”

“Yeah, I saw him reading that book the other day,” she replied with a groaning tone to her voice. To show her disgust she mockingly stuck her finger in her gaping mouth and stuck her tongue out at him in a sort of gagging fashion. The blond shinobi laughed with a snicker through his teeth.

“Kakashi-sensei reads perverted stuff,” he commented dryly in a whisper by her ear, and a grin grew over her face. Well, she knew what that could be almost immediately—blackmail.

“That’s so incredibly gross, you know that? I don’t have much room to talk though. Some of my books have that stuff in there, but nothing too blatant.” She pulled one off of the shelf, one that had odd lettering and marks upon it. Slowly, she cracked it open and let him stare at it.

Naruto squinted, almost pouting. “Yeah, that's just like Kakashi-sensei's books,” he commented, unimpressed. “Only they aren't Jiraiya-sama's books,” he added, confusing her.

“I have a feeling they're a lot more interesting than what your teacher reads,” Kaori retaliated, shelving the book back in the same place she took it from.

“So, about what I wanted to ask you . . .” she started apprehensively, changing the subject.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, confused at what she might be implying . . . if she were implying anything at all. “Um, you wanted to ask me something?”

She bit her lip, avoided those cerulean eyes, and then grabbed his hands tightly before she pleaded to him. “ _Please_ can I go outside? You can watch me, for like, five minutes. I’ll just stand outside and not wander off. _Please_?”

He slowly began to panic, looking around, hoping that Sai, Sakura, or worse yet, Kakashi had not been around to hear her ask him. She was incredibly and cruelly clever in attempting to get her own way, that was certain enough, for it left him nearly unable to speak, only stammer. “Kaori-chan, it’s not that I don’t want you to, it–it’s that you’ll prob–probably risk getting hurt again, you know?”

“I don’t see any horrible harm in it,” a familiar voice echoed out from just beyond the chair past the bookcase they were looking at. Both heads whirled in the direction of the voice, and just as they did, the chair swirled, its back not facing them any longer, and the doctor sitting with a book in his lap. “That is, if you’re under the protection of Naruto-kun and his friends.” He took his glasses off slowly, brushed the ebony hair in his eyes back with a hand, then turned off the lamp which he had been using.

Her face went alight, and all at once she was releasing Naruto and flinging herself completely around the doctor, kissing both cheeks and squealing before he, shocked, pushed her off. “Alright, alright,” he said before she went skipping happily out of the room and up the stairs to change her clothes into something less suitable than a hermit’s garb.

Naruto was more embarrassed of the notion that he had been in the room this whole time and not alone—how had he been there and he not have noticed? “Heh . . .” he laughed lightly before managing a sheepish smirk.

“You’ll take Hatake-san with you, Naruto-kun? I trust him with her.”

His blue eyes blinked, then he straightened up. “Uh . . . yeah!”

She came running back down the stairs moments later in the same colored clothing though the skirt was now a pair of shorts, the long purple smock was a sleeveless tank, and her hair was completely pulled back though it still managed to touch the back of her waist. “I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready!” Kaori called throughout the house and Kakashi perked up from his book he had been reading in the kitchen and glimpsed her for a moment. She shuffled past, not noticing him, then turned on the faucet above the sink, bent her head low, and drank for about two seconds.

She raised her head back up, wiped her mouth with the back of her arm, and just as she spun around, he was staring at her silently and with a steady eye. He blinked. “Going somewhere?”

“Out,” she nearly automatically replied before she began to walk towards the door. He removed himself from the chair, shut his book, and nearly caught her by the elbow before she could walk into the living area. She’d learned in just a week’s time that it meant to stay put or more force would be applied.

“Out where?” he tried again, his voice still cool, calm, and collected.

She sighed then yanked her elbow back to her side. “With Naruto and Sai and Sakura. You’re not invited.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yep.”

It was only a moment or two later that the doctor was staring at her with those caring but harsh gray eyes. And she groaned and hated to oblige.

••••••••••

They went that way, out on the outskirts of the village and about the forest just outside the town’s houses. Mostly, Kaori was intent on ignoring the authority, treating him as one of the trees to behold in the scenery (though he wasn’t all that great to look upon). He was too busy reading his book, and she was content with his silence. For a good thirty minutes or so it went that way until they could go no longer for safety reasons, for they had, indeed, reached the same mountains they had short since retrieved her from. Without hesitation at gazing upon the peaks, Kaori led her group of caretakers back in the direction from whence they came.

The quintet had barely made their return into the village, pausing before a loud booming male voice shouting Kaori’s name from some distance to the west approached them as they made their way through the gate. “Kaori-chan! Kaaa-ooo-riiii-chaaan!”

Naturally, it was the girl’s instinct to snap her malachite eyes in the direction of the sound, what, her name having been called with such power and enthusiasm. Only when she did, she caught a fair glimpse of her local male friend making a quick run towards her and her protectors. The others simply stood and looked at him as if he were in one of those queer states.

“Shin! What the hell, you look like you've seen a ghost . . . I haven't heard from you in weeks!” Kaori questioned curiously as he had stopped to pause and regain his breath, hunched over and breathing, hands on his knees before staring up at her with a crooked smile underneath his mop of sweaty black hair. Her eyebrow quirked in confusion.

“You're the one . . . that went getting snatched up again . . . _Miss Kaori_ ,” Shin taunted in between heavy expulsions of air. “Besides . . .” Swallowing down a lump sum of air, he managed to get the rest of his words out in a few staggering and enthusiastic breaths. “. . . There’s another one like before. A roan this time . . . right outside on the other end . . . of the grotto . . . Kenji thinks we might be able to tame her and keep her if you can help wrangle—”

It was all the girl needed to hear before she sprung out from the rest of the group, just escaping the hands of the restraining Sai and Kakashi. Had her pace been a bit slowed, they might have been able to keep her back—that obviously was not the case. The boy, Shin, made no attempt to further regain his breath, for he, too, sprinted off in hot pursuit of the girl in the direction from whence he came.

The three youths that remained did nothing but glare up at their lanky and exasperated leader who was busy scratching his head. And with an unimpressed sigh, he shot them a glare that told them “if we must, we must.”

The grotto wasn’t too hard to locate, and the girl wasn’t exactly deemed difficult of ensuing taking into account wherever she went chaos and frenzied people and things remained in her wake. The cave that the four members of Team Kakashi easily dashed through was dark and cool—the only possible hazards might have been for Kakashi—his height wasn’t exactly the ideal one for the low area of the cave. Yet, the quartet still managed to pass through the dank and shaded grotto unscathed.

Technically, they weren’t fully outside of the shadows of the cave—a duo of splayed arms prevented them from stepping outside any further, as if they were awaiting their arrival with anticipation. “. . . You all can watch from here,” a new male voice spoke clearly yet in a hushed tone as the group of four now saw their mission smoothly grazing over the top of the wooden gate. Naruto assumed this was the Kenji that the other young man, also restraining them, had spoke of just before they had taken off halfway across the village.

Kaori was in no position, anyway, to be told otherwise. The last time a wild horse had ended up in the crook of the outskirts of their village was about six months ago—and that was a paint that she had no trouble wrangling, although without a saddle and bridle, she found herself being jostled about all over the place and eating the dirt and grass below several times.

And here she stood—a shiny, practically flawless blue roan mare with muscular and long flanks, a wild and tangled ebony mane that could be easily taken care of with some tools, as well as a white star on the brow of her onyx face. She was grazing as if nothing could be wrong—yet Kaori knew she would feel otherwise as soon as she approached her closer. Her feet had already silently begun to pace towards the mare, and yet she wondered how she got there—her mind getting the better of her in that fleeting moment. “Alright, sweetheart . . .” she whispered, crossing her legs one over the other in a cautious side step to get a better glimpse of her side.

“Why get Kaori-chan to do this?” Naruto asked lowly to the boys standing in front of him, arms folded. “What's she gonna do, anyway?”

“Kaori-chan is _fast_ ,” Kenji whispered to the blond boy, the corners of his mouth turning upright. “Never seen anyone ride bareback as well as her either, and with the wild ones, you don't want to be throwing a saddle on 'em. They'd kick you before you got a chance to get up on 'em.”

“And ropes only do so much,” Shin put in softly. “Capturing's one thing, but she's got the speed and stubbornness to get near and on the damn thing and break it all in one go. She rides without the saddle all the time, and when she did it before, she did it without a bridle.”

Completely clueless about horses, Naruto groaned, clucking his tongue. It sounded completely foreign to him, but he watched anyway.

To approach her from the back would be horrible if she had the intention of kicking, Kaori figured, and the same would go for an approach from the front—she was liable to rear and probably bash her down with a hoof or two. Her eyes were a deep ebony as well as her lashes. She was so intent on eating the grass that—

No. She had seen her.

With a step forward, Kaori saw some sort of fear within the animal’s eyes—her caution with handling the creature now had to be increased at least by a million—that is, if she could even get a hand on her at this moment. Her eyes glimpsed the flecks of dark gray over her already blue-gray coat before she reached out a hand in hopes to possibly touch the smooth and gleaming hair coating her body.

No sooner did she raise a finger, the mare was on her hind legs, spinning and rearing back with a harsh whinny that pierced the still dry air of the day. Luckily, her adrenaline proved to be a fantastic aid; Kaori’s eyes were wide and alert. Easily, she sidestepped where the frantic attack would have taken place and took shelter against the mare’s neck and mane as soon as her hooves beat the ground viciously.

Hitching a breath in his throat, Naruto made a step forward before Kenji's hand restrained him. “See?” Kenji asked rhetorically. “ _Fast_.”

“Easy, I’m not going to hurt you—” Kaori whispered in a panic, hoping that her attempts to calm the huffing horse down would prove successful. Unfortunately, they did not.

Again she reared, and as that powerful and tall blue-gray neck rose to meet the sky once more, so did the girl, still managing to keep a stronghold on her onyx mane, fingers entwined maybe a bit too tight. Her green eyes widened in the shock of what was happening, and she wondered why this mare was so skittish in lieu of her merely trying to approach her with a gentle touch. Regardless, she managed to swing herself over to the right, landing harshly on the equine’s back just as her hooves pounded the earth in an angry clash again.

Kaori practically lay on her, arms wrapped about her neck in substitution for reigns that were obviously not on this horse. Her calves and thighs firmly gripped either side of her massive torso, prepared for whatever motions the horse might throw her for next. Her fingers tangled themselves once more in her long and untamed mane, finding some grip that might sedate her or allow her to succumb to Kaori’s wishes.

The mare was obviously on a difficult streak today, something that she and Kaori clearly had in common. Her hind legs bucked high into the air, whinnying a winded scream as she did so, and Kaori found every ounce in her being to manage to continue to hang on without screaming herself and frightening the creature any more.

“Uh, okay, help would be nice now!” she shakily managed in hopes of the two farm boys hearing her and coming to her aid. However, they weren’t too insistent on budging from their new found position at the opposite side of the wooden fence. She’d have to deal with them later, she decided, finding it much too hard to have that and this problem now on her hands. Just handle one at a time.

“I ain't gettin' close,” Shin laughed to Kenji, grabbing the rope he had slung over the wooden post. “She's still too temperamental, no telling _what_ she'd do. ”

Once she ceased in her crazed bucking episode, the mare persistently harped on ridding the brunette off of her back. The hair that had been in a ponytail shortly before now had cascaded around her back, falling in her eyes to the point that it was near impossible to see anything.

She could tell she was running and at an uncanny speed for an older horse. She jolted to the right, and Kaori managed to shift her weight to the left in countenance to her. The horse was smart—she was insistent on throwing her off at any way possible. In Kaori's experience, however, she learned when a horse tried to slam you off its side, you counteracted by swerving your body on its back in the opposite direction in hopes to neutralize the jostling.

This went on for about a minute more, which seemed like hours to the extremely exhausted girl. Finding the pattern in which the mare so viciously maneuvered, she took it to her advantage, continuing to keep a firm stronghold on her torso with her aching legs. Sharply ,she forced her knees and heels into the sides. While busying herself with trying to lean this way and that, her hands made their way to the thrashing head of the beast, managing to get a full on grasp of the equine’s ears. Harshly, she gave them a nice tug, another substitute for reigns. It wouldn’t pain her—only possibly control her. She gave a loud cry as well, in hopes of the loud noise scaring her at this point into submission.

Thankfully, she settled with a sloppy success, and the mare paused beneath her still whinnying with fear albeit coming to a slowing halt before Kaori finally caught her breath, steadying herself up. Riding bareback was definitely not very comfortable—chances were her legs would be full-on chapped in the morning.

“Surprised you did it,” Kenji called right before he and Shin leapt over the fence, and she glowered at him. “Had we told you the mare was pregnant you wouldn’t have done it, wouldja?”

That explained why she had so much trouble with her, although she didn’t look too heavy with a foal.

“Wow, _thanks_ for neglecting to tell me that,” she shouted in return. The mare mashed her hooves in protest to the sharp tone; Kenji, now at her side gave her long face a few consoling strokes.

“I’m amazed you didn’t see it,” he went on to say, getting a gentle hand around her neck to slide a looped rope about it. “But you don’t recognize the signs—you haven’t been trained in it.”

“Get me into trouble with it too,” Kaori hissed, annoyed and glancing over at the couple of enthusiastic faces of her younger protectors, and then the stern yet amused one of her eldest. She put in under her breath, “Doc won’t be happy with the day’s report.”

“Forgot you were under surveillance,” Shin added sheepishly. “We’ll get Pop and Kira to put in a decent word for ya—they’ll be happy that we’ll have another mare at the barn. Soon to be two new additions if the pregnancy goes well though chances are it’ll be a couple weeks.”

Kenji was watching her keenly as Shin had made the last statement. Kira's name would surely bring up some uneasy feelings with her, ones they hadn't talked to her about. Only their father had spoken to the doctor about what happened a week ago. “Kaori, about Masao. We had no idea—”

“Don't,” she cut his thought off. “It's done.”

Her face was stern, and Kenji shook it off just to get her glower off of him. “Kira's not himself,” he put in. “He's edgier than normal.”

Kaori's glance turned to the ninja team several meters away. “I'll try to meet him soon,” she murmured under her breath. “I need things to die down here a bit more.” Kenji gave her a nod, and Shin's forced smile caught her eye when he tightened the rope about the mare.

She slipped down off the horse’s back smoothly, rolled her eyes at them, and then wished she knew where the tie that she held her hair in had fallen off to. Though it would be practically impossible to find in this tall grass. Her legs felt like gelatin, her head ached with dizziness of being tousled about, and her hair was a tangled mess, to be certain. And what was worse—now she had to deal with an earful from her caretaker and later, the doctor.

They gave her a final wave as she turned back to face the grotto once again, easily jumping over the old fence and trying to avoid the tallest man’s gaze. Sakura was beaming. “I’m impressed you could be able to calm something so wild, Kaori-san. And something so beautiful, too.”

Naruto's grin was wider than she had ever seen, but he was blushing. “You're _scary_ , Kaori-chan,” he put in.

Kaori gave him her biggest grin in return, humbly scratching the back of her head. Her brain was still swimming, her balance off-kilter. She merely replied, “I need to eat.” It was soon time for dinner anyway.


	5. IV: Complications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?”_  
—Bon Iver (“Skinny Love”)

“You did _what?!”_ he screamed incredulously at her, grabbing a wrist forcefully yet gingerly.

“It’s not a big deal, Doc, okay?!” Kaori winced and eyed Kakashi angrily, practically foaming at the mouth through gritted teeth as she had just dreaded his remark to the doctor. “I’m perfectly fine, and nothing major happened! I mean, I’ve done it before, hav—”

”That’s the _least_ of my worries!” the doctor retorted, holding both of her hands in his to keep her still. “Kaori, you  know why we now have protection over you—had you been abducted again, or worse _killed_ —”

“It was a _horse_!”

“It was a bad idea,” Kakashi cut in, having dismissed the trio of young ninja to the study after dinner while discussing the day’s events with the doctor. Obviously, he had planned on things not going well. “Practically anything could have happened to you.”

“And you being around didn’t diminish any dangers I might have had coming my way?”

“Well, it certainly didn’t absolve them,” he told her sternly yet in that lackadaisical tone of voice he always possessed. Kaori fumed and bit her tongue.

Sighing, the doctor lowered her hands and stared her firmly in the eyes. “Carelessness is a luxury we can’t afford anymore, Kaori,” he spoke lowly, tucking away stray locks of shimmering brown hair behind her ears. “And I’m in no position to lose my girl permanently.” It shut her up, and he lowered himself down a little to meet her gaze straightforward. “Kaori, _listen_ to me. And _listen_ to Hatake-san, that’s why I hired him in the first place.”

“He won’t let me _do_ anything!” she shot back though she was staring right at Kakashi with fierce emerald eyes. “He’s some sort of evil dictator. Even you’re more lax than he is, Doc!”

“Evil . . . dictator?” Kakashi repeated, amused with creased eyes. “It’s really in your guardian’s interest that we keep you alive. Try looking at my 'evilness' as taking extreme precautions.”

Kaori growled, drawing herself away from said guardian. “Extreme, that’s exactly how it is. We’ve already established practically anything can happen, so you’re going to take extreme precautions for possible extreme situations? How outrageous is that?!”

“. . . It’s a _rational_ way of thinking,” the copy ninja stated slowly, as if challenging her common sense, or lack thereof. He actually laughed lightly.

She had started to open her mouth again, thick brows lowered practically completely over her eyes before the doctor pulled her away. “Kaori, that’s enough. I expect you to have respect for him. He has just as much control over you as I do at this point in time.”

“How can you expect me to have respect for someone who doesn’t even respect _me_?” the brazen girl hissed in retaliation. “He’s exactly the kind of ninja my mother warned me about— the type she told me to stay away from.”

“Kaori—”

“I’m _not_ going to—”

”Kaori!” And she ceased in her further bickering, eyes hitting the floor. It was with that tone of voice that he always used with her that she knew enough was really enough. Anything else she had left to say would be in vain because there was no way it would get through to him. He had endured enough of her quarrels for the evening. “Go up to my office. I need to run one more blood test on you and give you your last dose of medicine.”

Without averting her gaze elsewhere, even to his eyes, she nodded stiffly towards the floor. “Yes, sir,” she barely spoke aloud. And folding her arms, she trudged past the couch, past Kakashi with quick legs and marched silently up the staircase and out of sight.

“She was much the same way towards me when her mother left me in her care, at least for a few weeks. It’s nothing against you, I’m sure, just the whole mechanism in her brain that tells her there’s a stranger and she should be wary of them,” the doctor explained to the jounin. He barely crooked an eyebrow in response.

“Er, I’m actually not quite sure that’s the case, Doctor,” he said slowly, apprehensively. The raven-haired man raised a hand.

“Call me Morio, please, Hatake-san.”

His signature eye crease was his return of understanding. “Ah, Morio,” the jounin repeated. “Likewise, Kakashi is perfectly acceptable with me.”

“Hatak—” he cleared his throat. “Kakashi, yes.” Eyes narrowed, he massaged the skin above his eyebrows with his fingers. “She was like that even when she came to me. Can you imagine what it must have been like to watch a small girl carry her wounded, dying mother on her back into my clinic? . . . I'm still haunted by that vision.”

Sighing deeply, he looked intently into the masked man's only visible eye. “I did everything I could to help that woman. It was the least I could do to take in her orphaned child when she died.” He licked his dry lips, wincing at the memory of the suffering that the mother, Kaori, and even he had gone through himself in those trying days.

“Just forgive her attitude,” he continued, pleading. “With your three, though they're much more behaved, you should at least know how kids their age tend to act.”

“Stupidly? I mean, yes, I used to be one of them after all.”

Morio removed his glasses, almost grinning at the copy ninja. “You're a man who's to the point . . . I definitely like that about you. Believe me, if I was capable of handling Kaori the way you do, I'd have a lot less migraines.”

Kakashi raised a brow and smiled a wily smile behind his mask. “Just feel worse for the man that weds her. I'm sure he'll be a returning patient to you if you intend to keep her close.”

It almost struck a nerve with the doctor, but he managed a half-hearted smile. How ironic the statement actually was, especially to come at a time like this. Now was more or less a better time to explain her situation further, he figured. “About that, Kakashi . . .”

••••••••••

“I'm not going to ask you to apologize to Hatake-san, Kaori,” Morio told Kaori several minutes later in a low voice. “I shouldn't have to at your age. I expected better of you.”

Her eyes held the hurt, tears stinging her eyeballs and about to overflow out of their ducts and over her cheeks. She had been nibbling at her nails to keep her mouth closed. “Why do you have to be so serious all the time now, Doc?” the distressed girl inquired in a cracking, squeaky voice as the tears fell hot over her eyelids and into her lap. The tourniquet's pressure around her arm was far from the cause of her grief, and the doctor knew it, too.

Morio sighed, pulled her hand away from her mouth, outstretched her arm and quickly administered the needle through the vein protruding out underneath her skin. She merely winced, more occupied with the question she had just asked as he drew the blood from her. “I'm going to have to lose you within the year already, I'm not taking any chances on me losing you before that.”

She was reminded then of what her mother had made him promise with her dying breath. Stupid, dying wishes. She was to be married off as was ancient custom to some families in her mother's homeland that still upheld tradition, shortly after her twentieth birthday which was a little less than a year from now. Something her mother never had and wanted and also wanted for her daughter who ironically wanted nothing of it. Kaori's eyes stung immediately for different reasons. Being married to a man she probably wouldn't know, didn't love . . . it was the worst feeling in the world. Imprisonment for life.

The syringe was full and he bandaged her bruised inner elbow immediately with gauze and tape. He rose from the table without another word, gray eyes focusing on his work as he placed the vial of her blood in chilled water before he could administer the test later on in the evening before bed. He came back to her with a small plastic cup with two pills inside. “That should be the last you have to take that,” he told her lowly, clearing his throat and adjusting his spectacles. Her knuckles were white with clenched fists resting on her knees, and she was still crying.

To swallow an oncoming sob, she grabbed the cup of water that was on the table, downed the pills and followed it with a swig of the liquid. Almost immediately, Morio caught her before she went to rush off, twisting her into his lap as he took the seat she had just been sitting in. He let her cry against his shoulder like that for a few moments, stroking his fingers through her hair. “You know I can only hope the man that takes you is going to treat you as I have and more.”

“No one will ever keep me as safe as you're trying to do now,” Kaori retaliated, gasping for a fresh, sob-less breath after moments of hysterical tears.

“And the _now_ is what you need to focus on. Spare an old man his sanity . . . I'm not going to lose you, you got it?” His tone almost sharpened to the point that it would normally scare her, but her mind was on other things and her heart skipped a beat.

She half-laughed through a strained voice. “Doc, you're not an old man.”

“Certainly not old enough to be your real father, no, but I've seen younger days.”

It was anything to get her mind off what she didn't want, what her overbearing mother wished the most.

Leaning her head up, she actually managed a grin. “I'm sure you're younger than that white-haired Hatake-san, and that's all you should really be concerned about. Trust me.”

As horrible as he felt about the comment towards the ninja he respected and entrusted to his adopted daughter, Morio Nakamura laughed loudly.

••••••••••

He knew she was standing inches in front of him even though his nose was buried in a book. Keen ninja skills didn't need to come to his aid. She was blocking the light coming in from the window that was hitting the back of his book and washing over the table. Kaori leaned over her forearms resting on the wood of the kitchen table as she tried to catch his lone eye somehow over the edge of his smut.

When Kakashi finally gave up and humored her, she cocked her head and managed a crooked smirk. “Guess I owe you an apology . . .” she stated lowly, chewing at her nails. Almost immediately she averted her gaze once he caught sight of her green eyes. “You know, for being a complete _bitch._ ” Her eyes were on his again before the smirk couldn't help itself and spread into a wide grin with giggles ensuing.

“Kaori!” the doctor called sternly from the next room, having overheard. Quickly, she tried to suppress her laughing fit before stealing a piece of toast on the table and taking a bite into it.

“Hope you weren't gonna eat that,” she teased between chewing, making a mocking motion with her fingers to indicate a mask.

“KAORI!” Morio was now in the doorway, and while the girl flinched, the copy ninja sitting at the table barely batted an eye at the increased volume of his voice. Sternly, he glared at her, and swallowing the toast with her laughter, she gave a sincere hanging of her head.

She cleared her throat, her voice a bit quieter than normal. “Seriously though, sorry for the way I've been acting.”

The raven-haired doctor was now at her side, gripping her elbow at a pressure point. “And?”

Avoiding a yelp, the ex-kunoichi bit her lip and forced a light smile out of the sides of her mouth. “And I promise to quit giving you so much crap, I guess.” She gave an inaudible “ow” once the doctor released his grip on her, growling at his smiling face while he patted her on the head, grinning a fake and overbearing smile.

“GOOD, now that that's settled, if you could go live _normally_ and not manage to get into trouble today, you'd be doing everyone's blood pressure a favor.” He laughed heartily while Kakashi cracked one of his own fake smiles and snapped his book shut.

“Fair enough,” the jounin stated lazily, rising from his chair. “Kaori, Naruto and the others are waiting outside on that note.” Oddly enough, it was the first time he had used her name having only called her “the mission” or “her” whenever she was spoken of.

The girl rose one of her thick brows and wondered what he could have possibly been suggesting . . . or more rationally, what Naruto possibly had up his sleeves. “Huh?”

Almost as immediately as she could utter her confusion, the same blond blaze of hyperactivity had managed to somehow jump into a piggy back position on her back. “Aaaaay, Kaori-chaaaan, it's a really awesome dayyy!”

“If you throw her back out and make me fix it, I'm going to throw yours out, idiot,” Sakura threatened from the doorway.

The boy gave a click of his tongue in disapproval and hopped off as quickly as he had gotten on. Kaori merely scratched her head as if the whole thing hadn't actually happened. “Ehh, Naruto, what are you getting at? It seemed fishy getting your head honcho here to speak on behalf of you so easily.” She gestured a thumb in the direction of the jounin. 

Kakashi rose a brow. “Head . . . honcho?”

Naruto grinned and grabbed her shoulders lightly. “It's YOUR day, what do you wanna do? C'mon, and please pick something that involves food.”

He was practically jumping up and down in front of her. All the brunette could muster was a laugh. “Naruto, you just ate breakfast. What do you mean it's my day?” His jumping while holding her arms caused her to do just the same involuntarily.

Morio spoke up. “Exactly what he said. I guess limiting you to your activities even though you have supervision is only going to put you in a worse mood and none of us need that on our hands.”

“So, you mean—?”

The doctor merely managed an exasperated sigh. “Go be nineteen for a day. Heaven knows we can't stop you from that.”

Peeling away from Naruto, she grabbed his hands almost instantly and eyed him down, turning her gaze quickly to Sakura and Sai in the doorway. Her grin was incomprehensibly large. “Which one of you is the fastest at running?”

••••••••••

Naruto was beaming. Unanimously, Kakashi's team had obviously picked him for his competitive edge and lightning speed. Only Sai had made the short comment that he might be the fastest at running, but “his dick is slow in other things.” And though Kaori completely insisted on having the first in what might just be a series of races right in the middle of the main strip leading through town, the saner three were a bit more cautious and wary.

“I do it all the time with Shin. _Trust_ me.”

So, they took her word for it, though as Sakura chewed her lip, she wondered who would be taken out amongst the villagers that she would have to resort to healing on the spot. “Kaori-san, I don't think this is the best idea, even so. I wouldn't hold it past Naruto to play rough and well, cause a mess of things.”

The brunette was wrapping her lengthy hair into a much shortened ponytail at the back of her head. “Ground rules, then?” Her green eyes wavered over to Naruto who insisted completely on stretching around a sketching Sai and a reading Kakashi. At least two of the three were leisurely enjoying the day she reveled in. “Naruto, oi. No chakra, no jutsu, nothing fancy, okay?”

“Awww, but Kaori-chan that ruins it!!!” he pouted from a short distance. “I figured it wouldn't be the normal running.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Naruto, idiot, didn't we nominate you as the fastest, and you agreed? Would you not need to use chakra anyway?” Her arms folded and her foot tapping, she stood fuming at her teammate for being completely nonsensical.

Kaori began to sort out the details of how it worked. No tricks. “I don't want a cheater as my competition,” she said with glowering eyes in his direction. “We'll start at the edge of the woods towards the entrance of town. Sakura will count us off, and, er,” she momentarily stopped to see the pair of lazy nins, “one of those two will take record of who gets to the finish line first.”

“Well where's the finish line?”

“Here.” She drug the edge of her sandal in the dirt adjacent to Sai and Kakashi. “Meaning they don't have to really move, just stick around here and keep eyes on who arrives before. Though, I'm just saying, it might be a landslide in my favor!”

Naruto huffed. “Words! Fine, Kaori, once the race is on, all bets are off. Just show me where we start, I'll be happy to show you how we do it now-a-days.”

“If you're suggesting the fact she hasn't practiced ninja arts in years is going to affect her _speed,_ Naruto, you're even more idiotic than I realized,” Sakura commented snidely. 

“Not to say that means much,” Sai added amidst his sketching of a nearby house.

Growling, Naruto turned on heel away from them towards the supposed direction of the starting point. “ENOUGH, let's DO this!”

The boy had walked almost the entire distance while Sakura and Kaori discussed . . . oddly enough, girly things such as how good-looking or stupid boys were, the color of each others' hair and eyes, etc. “Naruto, you done fuming yet?” Kaori asked as they reproached him almost near the designated starting place. It had been marked by Kaori and Shin years prior with a huge rock adjacent to the dirt path entering town. “We gotta get down to doing this. My legs haven't had a good stretch in a while.”

“All the more reason why I'm going to beat you!” he barked again while she mockingly punched him in the shoulder. Her purple sleeveless tunic for the day was a bit less wind resistant than she would have liked, but the drag against the wind wouldn't phase her performance too much, she figured.

“Alright, alright,” the pink-haired kunoichi started. “Kaori-san on my left, Naruto on my right, face me, and wait for the count off.” Both assumed their positions almost immediately, each looking forward.

Naruto skillfully leaned over the leg he intended to push off on while his competitor laid both hands spread out over the ground, chest touching the knee that was bent to push off from. “What kind of stance is that?” he jeered while Sakura went to throw up her hand.

“THREE!”

“The one that's going to beat you, I told you that before.”

“TWO!”

“Easy now, Kaori-chan.”

“ONE!”

“Later.”

As soon as the kunoichi's hand had come down two blurs had literally almost knocked her down from the force of rushing wind that blast past them. To have that sort of speed without chakra assisting in just sheer bodily strength . . . she could only agree with the decision that the team had made to elect Naruto as Kaori's opponent.

He couldn't even see her except a blur of brown for hair and purple for clothing, but even that was near indistinguishable. Her legs had to be so far apart to keep up with his naturally greater strides that she was close to doing a full out splitting leap in mid-air. What had only been about ten seconds and he was only starting to breathe hard.

Kaori had started to yell something to him, and he slowly noticed she began to lose her even pace with him and lag behind. The jinchurriki grinned to himself, maintaining the same speed. But what he hadn't heard was “halfway there, let's kick it up a little bit.”

Falling behind a slight bit, she watched as he escalated ahead of her, spiraling towards the two others before she realized that a cart with donkey was coming clear in her direction, Naruto just having missed it as he zipped ahead. She pushed off with her left toes and easily sprung up higher into a hurdle, clearing it with a foot or so to spare before using the same momentum to speed up. The hairband she had used to tie her hair back slid out finally from the sheer force pushing against it.

Even though her hair was a cumbersome resistance to her speed now, she didn't let it stop her as she found herself almost seconds from the end target. Her opponent was all but too caught up in his near obvious triumph that he didn't even realize she was just beside him. “Capture the flag!” she screamed as loud as possible before bolting past him at near rocket speed in a blur that only seemed like a puff of smoke and vapor to him.

Three more long strides and the girl touched down just beside the jounin's foot. Loose chocolate locks merely grazed the side of him, and then he realized a full second later once Naruto had skidded to a halt alongside Sai that his book had been clearly taken right out of his hand.

Sai barely even batted an eye and continued on with his ink work. Naruto was concerned about the fact that he had just been beaten by a girl, who followed through completely with her smack talk and was currently on top of a barn a few houses away waving a green object over her head and shouting.

“Dammit!” he screamed just equally as loud, while an annoyed Kakashi dealt her a penetrating stare from across the way, his eyes glowering at her “flag” . . . or his precious book.

Running up, Sakura stared at Naruto, blinking. “Ohhh, who won? I lost track of you two once I managed to turn around and see the dust kick up in my FACE. Thanks, by the way,” she growled lowly almost to herself.

“You LOST, Naruto Uzumaki!” she screamed loud enough for the entire small village to hear. A few citizens paused to stare up at the girl on top of the barn.

“She had to have used chakra,” he groaned, almost falling over in shame, his head hanging low.

Sai glared at him, actually pausing from his drawing to lay his brush back down in his ink well and stare up at the blue-eyed ninja. “Are you actually saying that after she's been standing there now and you can't percept any chakra flow anywhere around here?”

“Shut up before I kill you right here!” Naruto bellowed in his face, getting down to his level.

“You might need to check and see if she stole your dick along with his book,” he continued, egging him on.

The two continued their bickering, Sai with a completely unchanging smile on his face. “I didn't think he would take it that hard,” Kaori murmured to Sakura upon returning alongside the four of them, giggling and shaking her hair all to one side, taming the chaos of long locks. She casually stuck the book out in the copy ninja's direction, just expecting him to take it. “Thanks for your 'flag.' I didn't bend any pages or anything. Swear.”

She ended up having to put it in his gloved hand when he didn't take it back from her, only staring at her with a lone, cold, gray eye. “Looks like I was too fast for more than one ninja today!” she boasted arrogantly, grinning at Sakura before realizing she probably shouldn't have said it, and she stifled another laugh. Naruto was on her in a practical pounce while Kakashi more or less wanted to have his way with her in terms of words. “RE-MATCH, NOW.”


	6. V: Rustic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _And I'll confess that I can be a little selfish, and I'll admit I don't_  
 _want you to help me through this. I don't want to start over again.”_  
—Paramore (“Whoa”)

The feline squirmed in her arms, wanting to be released, yet at the same time purring as if he wanted more attention from her. Kaori gave in, but paused in her tracks as she felt the cat crawl its way down one of the rather big sleeves of her overly large smock. “. . . _Cat_ ,” she hissed to herself as she felt the claws attempt to dig in as if to grapple onto her stomach in order for the animal to stay upright. She gave an instinctive flinch away from the pain, and the cat had no choice but to tumble out from the bottom of her violet smock.

The cat had come to them a few days before at the house, and Kaori, child-like, had pleaded with the doctor to at least let them take care of it for a while. With no other option to satisfy her, he agreed so long as she promised she was capable of taking care of it in terms of food. Kaori had mentioned it was no problem at all, but the copy ninja apparently hated cats for whatever reason and had been staying away for quite some time now. She saw the little feline as a sort of blessing . . . at the very least, it kept her from getting into any trouble with the jounin. She wouldn't be complaining at all because of his absence.

“It feels weird without Kakashi-sensei around,” Sakura commented as Kaori grabbed at her stomach in an attempt to numb the pain of the searing scratches. She shrugged with a grimace on her face.

“It’s _nicer_ ,” Naruto corrected huffily as he padded alongside a silent Sai who would remain silent and rather not voice his opinion on the matter. “It’s not fair that he treats you like a baby, Kaori-chan. It’s like you’re lower than us to him . . . and we’re younger than you are.”

“I don’t mind,” she lied, knowing good and well the old man got on her last nerves even by the sight of him. “Shin and Kenji have been wanting me to come by the barn for ages now since the horse incident. Apparently she had the foal—it’ll be best without the old guy anyway.”

“We can go now?” Naruto suggested with a shrug to his shoulders.

“That was the general idea,” Sai put in, his cold eyes already having glimpsed the rooftop to the barn over a few buildings before them. The blond scowled.

And the little feline padded after them, taking after his “mother” and winding his way about her feet. She wouldn’t have anything to do with him at the moment though. Not after he had sliced at her stomach.

Upon arriving at the barn, the quartet saw a fierce look about a young blond man's face. His hair was the same flaxen hue of the traitorous Masao that Kaori had killed few weeks prior. 

Kaori'd almost forgotten him, and her stomach sunk at the sheer glimpse of the man standing against the fence post nearest the barn. “Kaori,” he deadpanned immediately, acknowledging her in a low voice. She forced a weak smile on her face and went forward, arms awkwardly open to hug him even though he seemed completely unresponsive to the embrace.

“Kira, I'm sorry. I've wanted to see you, but I haven't been given the chance.” Her arms were about his neck, and finally he responded by pushing her away a bit just to stare her in the face. Her eyes were genuinely stinging with tears. “About Masao, I mean, I—Kira, it's been hard coming to terms.”

“He stopped being my brother when I learned he was in conjunction with those assholes,” he told her.

Alarm took over the girl's eyes, and she stared him directly in the face. He was younger than his older brother, perhaps more around Kaori's age, but she was never entirely sure. “You knew?”

He lowered his eyes. “Yeah. Once he was found dead that day. You know, when he tried—”

“Kira, I'm so sorry. I did what I had to, there wasn't any other way.”

She hadn't even mentioned to the others how Masao had actually died that day. How she had used her own special ninjutsu to take him down. She had only assumed that _they_ had assumed how it happened, and that was the end of it. The rest was just keeping her under control and within the perimeters of the doctor's home and out of harm's way.

He pushed her out of the embrace and shook his head. “It's been a near month now, and I'm over it,” he told her before staring at the other three behind her, all who had quizzical or critical stares to give him in return.

Kira’s face turned to stone again as if something were troubling him though, and Kenji and Shin stood about nearby, leaning against the next post as if Kira had instructed them not to say anything. “But on another note, the cow . . . she won’t give milk,” he said angrily before kicking a rock at the pile of wood beside them, dust encircling his feet. “Dammit all, she won’t give milk and she’s testing the lot of us. And it ain’t even the dry season.”

“It’s spring,” Shin noted, stating the obvious anomaly. He moved from his stance of leaning against the fence post and walked clear in front of him and the pack of newcomers.

“Shut up, Shin,” Kira growled back, and Kaori sighed while the three shinobi looked as if they were for a loss on the subject. “I’m gonna go out back, check on the roan. Kenji, mind him, and Kaori, see if you can’t meet me out after dinner later on, alright?”

Kenji barely nodded his head in understanding. Kaori enthusiastically gave him a grin as she watched his pale blond head fade off over the building. “Is that what the whole ‘come by later’ was about?” she inquired to Kenji and Shin as soon as he was out of earshot.

“So he could gripe? More than likely. I dunno why he called you here,” Shin answered. He flinched as he felt a feather-like object zip past his bare feet and in the direction of the barn. “The _hell_?”

“CAT!” Kaori screeched before Naruto could make a failing dive in an attempt to grab the feline before it disappeared into the barn with the ornery old bovine. Her small furry companion had decided to be mischievous at the worst time possible and take a risk of riling up the old girl’s temper.

“Kira’s gonna let us have it,” Kenji spoke up before quietly creaking open the door to the barn and peering inside, half expecting the cow to start moaning at full force from the stress of being bothered once more. “Kaori, you might wanna get that thing back.”

“On it,” she groaned, knowing full well that the heifer was probably so temperamental that she might be in even more danger from it lashing out at her than Kakashi would. She lowered herself onto all fours, creaking the door open a tad more just to slip in. So much for keeping clean until dinner . . . her knees and hands were already freshly covered in mud and straw.

Rustling her hand around on the ground, she made small, light snapping sounds to try and direct the vanished kitten's attention. “Please come out. We don't need another bad report on today's agenda . . . cause there's no way of me lying my way out of _this_ one.” Even Kenji and Shin's father, the owner of the ranch and this cow, would be upset with her (a rarity at most).

The five others stood, some anxious, others bored stiff as the girl tried coaxing the stubborn, unwilling feline to her. The barn was mostly darkness seeing as the cow wasn't favoring the sunlight as of recent. Really keeping the barn door cracked this much was probably pushing it a little as light washed in over a fair portion of the barn.

Still, the girl and the cat were cloaked in complete darkness, and the pun of “finding a needle in a haystack” would definitely be unappreciated by Kaori at this moment in time. She heaved a sigh, almost completely wanting to give up as she continued ruining her attire and skin from crawling around in . . . she didn't want to know what she was crawling around in exactly.

Soon as she had thought of the dread of the cow discovering she or the cat were in her personal space, she heard a perturbed groaning from the cow herself almost directly over her head. She froze nearly immediately and stopped before laying her hand down again, balancing on two knees and the other palm.

The small cat, startled by the cow's disgruntled noise, had somehow found its way through the darkness out past the barn door and five others waiting earnestly for the outcome.

Shin almost leapt back in surprise into the rest of the lot as the feline took a leap and a bound towards the top of the furthest fence post, still tempted to jump it completely and head off into the grass pasture just outside the barn. “Cat's out!” he bellowed, forgetting they were dealing with a temperamental animal on their hands.

Rolling her eyes Kaori figured that would just be her luck, put her hand down and spun around, lifting her head a bit. The crown of her head hit something completely furry, and she knew right then and there that she was probably not in a good position whatsoever as if the direction of the moo beforehand hadn't told her that.

Nearly simultaneously, she felt a hoof stamp directly beside her, almost crushing her left leg completely. The cow frantically started mashing the earth and straw with her hooves with the frightened girl completely underneath her stomach. “Kaori!” she heard Kenji scream again. “What are you doing in there, get—”

Hoping the cow wouldn't be able to hear her screaming over its already agitated stomping and groaning, she shot back, “There is a COW over me, guys!” Scrambling as fast as she could and losing her footing in wet, slick mud and straw, she managed to bolt out from underneath the animal. Clumsy as it was, she found her way through the darkness to the strip of light that was letting the outside sun peer into the barn. “Close the door, close the door!” the girl continued screaming as soon as she had managed to tumble out past the five of them and land a few somersaults into the nearest fence post outside.

The barn was shaking almost uncontrollably with the angered cow still fighting with nothing to be left alone in the own solace of her space. Meanwhile, Kaori had hit her head against the wooden post and just started to realize how dirty and caked with straw she actually was when she saw another pair of ninja sandals out of the corner of her eye that didn't belong to the others who still stood close to the barn.

“How long have you been watching?” she groaned, just giving up immediately, more concerned with the knot that was going to be on her head. She didn't need to see his silver hair to know who it was.

“The whole time.”

“The _whole_ time?”

Sai spoke up from the side while Naruto and Sakura had an almost ill look on their faces. Kenji and Shin remained more preoccupied with trying to get the cow to be quiet before their father, or worse, Kira, managed to hear and come wring their necks. “He's been using a henge for days now,” he stated. “The cat was freaking out every time we went somewhere because there was a dog close by. Just in case that went over your heads . . .”

Sakura had then recalled a canine that closely resembled one of Kakashi's ninken prodding around nearby over the course of the past few days, and stupidly, hadn't thought anything more of it except the fact that it was a black and silver dog.

“. . . How much trouble am I in?” Kaori groaned, thoroughly red in the face from embarrassment now and not even sparing her friends a second glance as the cow finally quieted down. The copy ninja surveyed her as she stood, completely covered in barn hay and wet sludge.

“If you're capable of cleaning all of that off,” he started in a drawled out tone though thoroughly amused, “I won't mention a word of it.”

Eyes widening almost in disbelief, she didn't spare it a second thought as she played his words back over in her head. “Guys, find me some water, QUICK.”

••••••••••

The doctor hadn't asked why she was completely sopping wet, especially since Naruto thought quickly and threw himself into the pond to make it seem as if she wasn't the only one to blame. The fact that they came in laughing hysterically only seemed to bring a smile to Morio's face, and just seeing his adopted daughter happy was the least he could ask for.

At the dinner table, the trio of young ninja and their mission played the same game . . . wondering if Kakashi Hatake was going to give in to the doctor's wonderful cooking and actually remove the mask to eat tonight. Little to their knowledge, the jounin always made arrangements to eat after everyone (seeing as he did it rather quickly), and the doctor found no fault at all with it and merely saw it as an issue of respect concerning his secrecy.

Since he wasn't biting with their antics, as usual, Kaori changed the subject, quickly remembering Kira's words. “So, Doc, Fukao-san has been having troubles at the farm. I don't know if he told you or not.”

The owner of the farm, Iku Fukao, was a good friend of Morio's even though they rarely saw each other anymore. Their friendship alone was how Kaori even came to know Iku's two sons. “Troubles?” Morio returned, concern in his voice while his brows lowered behind half-moon spectacles. “How so?”

She shrugged before dipping her spoon into her miso and holding it steady. “Not sure, but Shin and Kenji and Kira were complaining about the fact that their cow wasn't holding up too well. Figured it could be a sickness or something and you could check it out . . .” She casually took the spoon to her lips and let her eyes catch Kakashi's while he glowered at her over his book. Naruto choked on his own to stifle a laugh once he was reminded of the cow incident from earlier on that day.

Morio cleared his throat. “Kaori, you know I'm not a specialist in animal medicine. Veterinary expertise is another thing. I'm merely just a, er, _human_ specialist,” he put it awkwardly. “Shame that Iku-san is having issues though . . . he hasn't come around here in a while, that must have been the reason . . .”

Seeing an opportunity to keep her word with Kira, she caught Kakashi's eye once more before avoiding him completely and leaning a bit over the table to engage her guardian more. “Then would it be any trouble if I stopped by and told him that you weren't capable of helping? Cause it'd just be rude to let him sit and wait it out, and I know you're busy.” She went back to twirling her spoon nonchalantly in her bowl of miso, and Naruto kicked her lightly under the table.

The doctor saw from the glare in the boy's cerulean eyes as he looked at her adjacent to him through scarfing down his food that something was up her sleeve though he wouldn't ever hold _that_ past her.

“Cunning, Kaori,” he started, staring at her new blond friend a few moments more before taking his own spoonful of miso. “Though, rules are the rules still; no going out after dinner. You can wait and tell him tomorrow.”

“But Doc, I—”

“It wouldn't be a problem for me to escort her, Morio,” Kakashi spoke up from over his reading, and Kaori wondered if he had even been reading at all this whole time. “Things have been quiet as of recent since the last attack, and I don't think we're in any need to worry tonight of all nights.”

Though all of them were taken aback, Morio paused briefly the longest before slicking his hair back with his hand. “Ah, yeah. Well, so long as you're back at a reasonable hour, Kaori, which I'm sure you would be. Take Hatake-san with you, and I've no quarrel.”

Now it was her turn to wonder what was up the old jounin's sleeve, but she wouldn't dare ask at the moment to save herself an awkward air. Instead she just set to quickly finishing her miso soup so she could get out and over to the barn to Kira as soon as possible, occasionally battling with Naruto under the table as they tried to kick at each other's shins to see who would cave into yelping first. Whatever Kira needed to talk to her about . . . it had to be important. She hadn't seen him ever be that cold to her or anyone as she had seen him earlier.

“Alright, ready.” She stood and then threw her dish into the sink, running water over it before brushing past Morio, kissing the top of his head. “Thanks, Doc, I won't be long.”

He turned to look at her over his shoulder while Kakashi rose to his feet. “Tell Iku-san I send my regards?”

She was staring directly at Naruto who sat directly behind Morio from where she stood. She gave a stiff nod and faked a large grin. “Yeah, sure.”

A moment more and she was out the door, fitting her arms into a jacket to accommodate her body to the naturally cooler weather that befell the mountainous village at nighttime. Book in hand, the copy ninja followed suite, expecting her to lead the way or at least say something, or both.

And she did both, starting out with him somewhat beside but behind her. “So, what's up with you cutting me so many breaks recently? You used to be Mr. Uptight before.”

“You've also healed physically since then, and a fair bit of time has passed so the dangers aren't near as great as they were when I first was assigned to watch after you,” he rationally returned while his eyes remained on the page.

She would have made a comment about how he wasn't obviously reading, especially with the darkness outdoors (though ninjas had keener eyesight, and she wouldn't hold it past this guy at all to have excellent vision even at night). But she didn't and kept walking on, wondering what Kira needed to talk to her so desperately about and even more importantly how she was going to get rid of Kakashi so she could talk to him alone.

“You know why I'm going out, then?” she inquired, hopeful that he wouldn't shoot down her real motive for coming out this late at night.

“I was around the whole time today, remember?” he reminded her with a sighing, almost annoyed tone in his voice. She rolled her eyes, knowing he thought she was incredibly stupid, but he had his own share of problems, so she wasn't too concerned.

She whirled her head around to stare, slowing down to fall into pace alongside him. “A dog henge, hmm? That why you don't like my cat so much? Dog person?”

Humoring her, he actually shut his book and shoved it into his back pocket. “You could say that I have a fair share of my own dogs, yes. They wouldn't be too pleased knowing that I reeked of cat.”

“They're just dogs,” she shot back, folding her arms.

Shaking his head lightly, he stared right at the stars in the sky. “Kind of like how birds are just birds to you.”

Eyes wide, Kaori stopped nearly completely and watched him walk ahead of her a few paces. “H–hey! H–how did—?”

Showing her his fake smile as she rushed to get back in step with him, he spoke in an amused tone. “You forget that ninja are perceptive individuals and have a knack for picking out the unordinary.”

“That still doesn't explain how you know anything about my connection with them.”

He held up a hand. “Correct, that was vague, wasn't it? Very well then . . . I don't expect when you were younger that you made a pact with a certain species. But that's how I'm connected.” He paused and glared at her from the corner of his eye momentarily. “However, I do know for a fact that the Raikage favored wolves in his jutsu. Not sure if you would know anything about that, would you?”

Frozen mentally, legs still moving, she ground her teeth and immediately wanted to just rip his throat out right then and there. “You really are an ass, you know that?!” she screamed a bit too loud for the time of evening, grabbing the sleeve of his navy jounin shirt out of angry instinct.

“So, what are they, crows?”

“Did you come out here to ESCORT ME or QUESTION ME?” she screamed even louder, balling her fist up with the fabric and twisting his body towards her a bit. Now almost moments from the barn, she stopped him, eyes on fire and brows so low he thought she might for sure unleash that ninjutsu on him this time. “Answer me!”

He rolled his own visible eye, looking up at the sky past his silver tendrils before heaving a long sigh. “Hmm, you're not as ignorant as you seem, I'm sure. You're well aware of what a bloodline limit is, after all? He didn't teach you that jutsu directly; he only helped you harness it. You picked that up one day, and your mother discovered you were doing . . . I don't know, some sort of lightning-based jutsu while standing in a pool of water, and miraculously, you didn't get zapped. And she probably worried herself sick but finally realized that you were just like your birth father since that's how he and all other notable Raikages before him in his family line even got to be head of the village. It's a Storm Release Jutsu. Come to think of it, had you been legitimate you would have probably followed suit probably around the age you are now . . .”

“Where do you get off bringing up all of this around me?!” she cut in, breathing heavily before releasing him, only because her left hand hurt from clenching at his shirt too hard. Almost immediately as she had let go and gone to turn away from him (as he was now staring at her and it made her uneasy), she wheeled around just as quickly with an open palm going straight for his masked face.

Catching her wrist was all too easy. He shot her a calculating stare with one eye for her severe lack of judgment and random impulse. “You've been sheltered these past several years and have tried putting it all behind you, and that's all good and fine, Kaori. But acknowledging that you still have something special, a something that they're more or less seeking you out for, is a completely different thing.

“I'm not an idiot. I knew just as soon as I had shut that door that you had gone off with that boy and that you were in danger. I knew just as well that unearthly noise wasn't anything they did but what comes with that technique. Morio had only told me moments before that you were _his_ daughter. It was completely obvious.”

She wanted to crumple to the ground right now in one huge heap, and she hadn't even gone to speak to Kira yet. Her heart ached and her stomach flip-flopped, and she hated that she was capable of doing anything the man could do that abandoned both she and her mother. And that she was being hunted all the same by the enemies that _he_ had made. And that _this ninja_ had her completely cornered awkwardly into admitting everything about her past and how it pertained to the present.

“So, you figured me out, _fine,”_ she murmured jerking her hand back to fall by her side. “ _Yes,_ I'm being hunted because of who my father was. _Yes,_ the Raikage might have secretly taken me on as a student to help me manifest it without me knowing I was his daughter. And _yeah_ , I used it to kill those shinobi, so what? I've been sheltered for the past nine years, but I've lived a lot more peacefully and happily with Doc than I ever would have back in that ninja village, and I _am_ putting it behind me.”

A moment of silence ensued and her eyes went to the ground, averting his gaze with a light flush over his cheeks. “You don't believe it's for revenge against my father, do you?”

He shook his head, his hair sort of wavering with his motions. “You're targeted for that bloodline, Kaori. Your father made his share of enemies, but he took his life just like they wanted him to. They don't have a reason to keep a grudge against him. He lost it all.” The fear and reality settled in with her. For a time she had believed that her capability was the reason despite the reason they told her she had been taken. Reconciliation with the “enemy” over the fact she was his daughter had no importance now. She was going to be targeted regardless.

Kaori gave a long sigh, blinking back what tears she had by closing her eyes and tilting her face towards the sky. “. . . Is it _sick_ and _odd_ to think that you've been getting on my last nerve because you actually get me?”

“Sick, odd, whatever you want to call it,” he put it simply, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Considered 'correct' by most.”

She almost felt completely relieved that she could share her entire secret with someone who actually understood without judging. And what was more, someone who could pick up on it without her even having to explain the dramatic, annoying details. She heaved a long, half-laughing sigh out, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. “I don't like people getting involved with my past, so I don't want to talk about it anymore. You've got all the answers you need, and there's no need to bring it up again.”

Kaori was walking once more, and he picked up in the same fashion behind and adjacent to her as they had been when they first set out a bit ago. “They're ravens. Not crows,” she stated bluntly. She wouldn't even notice that Kakashi was quite obviously genuinely smiling behind his mask.

They approached the house nearest the barn, another word not having been spoken at all between both of them. Surely, she thought, Kira would have to have been lurking in the shadows to see if she was coming, but Kakashi's appearance probably kept him from revealing himself.

She started to turn around and tell him to at least scram for a moment or two while she had her moment to talk with him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Temporarily stunned and a bit nervous as to where he had gone off to, she looked around into the darkness of the evening before taking a few steps up to the door of the house and rapping the back of her knuckles against it in a small knock.

Moments later just as she was about to knock again, Iku Fukao himself opened the door, weary with increasing age, but still smiling. “Miss Nakamura, I haven't seen you since before that last horrible abduction. And I haven't thanked you properly for my new roan and her foal. Oh, her foal, she's just as beautiful as her mother, Kaori, I can't thank you enough. Have you seen her?” He was hugging her tightly in a bear hug just as he always did, and sheepishly, Kaori let him even though she was being lifted off of the ground. She humored him a bit, talking and what not, then finally broke the entire conversation to ask where Kira was.

“That boy, he's been acting strange as day lately since his damned brother up and threatened the village by sticking in cahoots with those rogues.”

“Yeah, I know, I'm sorry I was kind of to blame for that,” Kaori managed shamefully, knowing that Iku was more or less upset that he had lost a farmhand that he needed now more than ever. At least he still had Kira around.

“Anyway, he should still be out back. Do him a favor and tell him to hurry up and get back to the house, will you? He's been pulling his own and everyone else's lately, and it's starting to worry me,” he replied, completely shaking off her apology as if it didn't matter.

Nodding, the brunette hopped down a few stone steps and held a hand out in leaving. “Thank you, Fukao-san. It was great seeing you again!” She gave him a warm, genuine smile.

“Give Morio my best,” he called out. “Right keen dog you've got there!”

He had shut the door before she could turn around and see the black and silver canine sitting at attention and quietly in the shadows as if it were waiting for her. Just as she started trekking to the gate that led out to the pasture and the barn, the canine followed her, and she noticed one of his eyes was brown, the other blue, completely mismatched.

“Oh, that's just cute,” she murmured under her breath, almost growling as she mocked the copy ninja's henge. He only merely panted in response as she rounded the corner and shut the gate behind the both of them. “What's Kira going to think about that one? First a cat finds me, and now a dog. He'll fully expect a full-fledged bear to come wandering up to the doorstep next time.”

Soon as she had said it, she happened upon him, flaxen hue of his hair gleaming with what starlight shone on him in the middle of the night outside the barn. “Kira, yo,” Kaori greeted, glowering at her ninken companion to stay back while she spoke with him. The young man simply glared at the dog.

“Morio let you come out at this hour?” he simply asked. Kaori only nodded assuming he knew how well her persuasive skills still were when it came to wooing the doctor into getting what she wanted.

She scratched the back of her head. “What was so important?” she asked almost apprehensively, somewhat afraid of him before realizing that Kakashi was still right beside her, panting hot breath at the inside of her palm. That didn't help things in the least, so she swatted him back a bit, half-groaning.

Kira only took a seat against the wooden wall of the barn, staring up at her with his placid, steel-blue eyes. “Did you ever suspect Masao would do something of that caliber against you?” he asked her point blank.

For it catching her off guard a bit, Kaori answered as quick as she could possibly answer to avoid an awkward air. “Kira, I really cared about your brother, okay? So no, I had no idea that he was actually conspiring against me. I mean, basically, he used me the entire time. Exploited me and got me as close as he could to him so I trusted him and he could in turn lure me out into the enemy's hands. He never spoke anything about it with you?”

Averting her gaze now, Kira shook his head, accepting her answer.

“Kaori, those guys are ruthless. I knew Masao had his fair share of dark secrets that he didn't even keep with me, but he and they—they don't stop at anything, okay? Whatever you did to piss them off back then, you might just be better off reconciling.”

She actually laughed, tucking hair behind her ear. “I was ten years old! I wasn't the one that did anything, it was the bastard that disowned me; I've told you time and time again.” Kira then rose to a stand and glowered at her straight in the eyes.

“Have you thought about the man that actually _does_ claim you as a daughter, Kaori? They'll get him, too, if they have to and this keeps up. Or Shin, or Kenji, or even me. They always go for things that break others, and don't you think that having him as leverage against you would break you?”

Sternly, her demeanor changed as she thought of them using Doc against her just to get her to comply with whatever they wanted. “Don't be stupid. I've handled them five times now, with and without help each time, so them getting any of you guys is going to do nothing to change my spirits. They're not even going to have the chance at getting at you guys . . .”

She paused before he started to walk away, half-laughing at her seeming ignorance. “Kira! It's been almost a full fucking month since anything's happened! The fact that we've had leaf shinobi watching out has warded them off, probably for good if they're smart.”

“And when the Leaf leaves?”

Kaori honestly hadn't thought about it. Naruto and the gang had been around so long now that it seemed as if they had just melded into the family somehow. Would she and the doctor be in just as much danger after they had left, or did Doc have something else planned down the road for their safety? Her rusty ninja skills had only gotten her so far in the entire ordeal, she did admit that much.

“Kira, I know you're concerned, especially after what Masao's pulled out from under our eyes, but I'm going to be fine, I promise.”

All the pale blond man could do was laugh out between his ground teeth and kick the earth with a foot as if he didn't care. “Alright. Whatever you say. We'll see how it turns out.”

“C'mon, don't be that way, Kira.”

“You should get back to Nakamura-san,” he simply told her, his blue eyes cold as stone in the night as he stared into her emerald ones. “Surely he needs you just as much as you're gonna need him to get through all this _crap.”_

It wouldn't be until the walk back home that Kaori finally spoke again. The dog had disappeared and the jounin was back. “Masao's involvement must have really messed with his head. He practically idolized him.

“Fukao-san wasn't kidding when he said he was more disturbed as of late.”


	7. VI: Vengeance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _And they'll tear into you, they will, they will, they will, they will . . .”  
— _Straylight Run (“Another Word for Desperate”)__

To say originally she would have never warmed up to the copy ninja, Kaori would be shooting herself in the foot now for lying. Ever since that night a few days prior, he as her witness to the conversation, she kept annoyingly close to him, just making sure that she was still in the best of safe hands. As much as she disliked him for piecing her together, she owed it to him for putting up with her this long.

How long would Doc keep them around just to guarantee her safety? What measures would they take after that? And why was Kira so obsessively concerned aside from his guilt in the connection to Masao in the whole matter?

She hadn't spoken to him, Shin, or Kenji since that night and made sure in the day's itinerary that she stuck way out of the way of the barn just so she could avoid another awkward run in with Kira. Though Morio was completely out of the loop as to why, Kakashi wholeheartedly agreed on her decision to stay away given her discomfort after the conversation that had gone down. The stray cat had run away that same day.

Naruto was swinging a feather from a bird in her face which she pretended to find fascinating even though her mind was in other places. He didn't even need to guess that she was upset, and even Sakura had been more intimate with her time with her than normal. They'd finally been able to get her back to something of a normal, playful Kaori, and didn't even ask what the trip to the barn with their sensei entailed.

“It's a mockingbird feather,” she stated, taking it from him and inspecting it between her index and middle finger. “We've got enough of them here. Listen at night and they keep you awake.”

“You like birds, Kaori-san?” Sakura asked. She found herself catching the eye of the jounin over his book once again like she had been doing more and more recently these days. All she did was smile at Sakura and reply, “Yeah.”

They were on the outskirts of the tiny mountainous town, towards the entrance where Naruto and Kaori had started their races, a fair bit away from the doctor who had his fair share of appointments for the day since a summer sickness had started plaguing the town.

“Ravens,” she continued. “They're my favorite.”

Kakashi's only visible eye took her in completely when she said it and he didn't even feel the least bit intimidated when her green eyes stared him down.

Naruto cut in while she still stared at him, grinning. “You should see me with frogs.”

Sakura, groaning, waved a hand in detestation. “Oiii, Naruto, we know, your toads are absolutely disgusting, too.”

Growling, he held up a fist to her as if to challenge her. “You're one to talk when you hang out with a woman who has an affair with slugs!”

Kaori almost forgot that she was in the conversation until she heard “affair with slugs” and made a sickening face. “I don't even want to know who would be crazy enough to—”

“Oh, Granny's PLENTY crazy,” Naruto scoffed as loud as he could. “Slimy and sickening to match her personality though!” He started snickering at his own joke and Kaori, completely clueless, scratched the back of her head and faked a laugh to humor him. Though she could only admit that the way his laughing always started as a light snicker like that was extremely cute.

She felt her heart hammering in her chest, louder than it normally did. It resonated in her ears and she felt as if the other four could obviously probably hear it. And even though they might not have been able to hear her heart, she dreaded what they could possibly perceive was wrong with her. Sakura was the first to mention it.

“Are you feeling okay today, Kaori-san?” she asked, eyes full of concern, causing Kaori to panic and shakily stare at her. Again she faked a smile and rose to her feet to avoid any more awkward eye contact for at least a few minutes.

“Yeah, sorry, I'm just . . . so out of the loop. Almost beginning to think that I'm catching the sickness that everyone else has been getting around here, you know? Staying away from that clinic Doc has only gives you so much protection from germs.”

It was obvious she was talking much too fast. “Naruto, you up for running or something?” she added, quickly changing the subject before glowering over at Kakashi to make sure he wasn't going to make some wise remark about her losing her cool for no apparent reason.

Anything, the blond figured, to get her back into normal Kaori mode. He wasn't quite sure what was bothering her. “Yeah, erm, sure Kaori-chan.” He actually half-laughed, not knowing any other way to take her spastic outburst and rose to his feet as well to stand beside her, looking down at her faux happy expression. “Though if you're getting sick running might not be the—”

“Eh, yeah yeah, whatever, but I don't even want to race, I just need to . . . stretch my legs, you know.”

••••••••••

That was the sixth time that Naruto could count that they had come back to the same spot they started from and where Sai and Kakashi lounged around nonchalantly, each time pretending to be paying perfect attention to them. Even Sakura had started in the running fashion after two returns just to keep herself from sitting around awkwardly with the two say-nothings of the team. Kaori was far from concerned now, more caught up in running and the fact that her legs felt fantastic stretched and warmed up to their maximum capability.

She felt safest when she ran, mainly because running had been her sole reason for surviving this long. Escaping the Village Hidden in the Clouds, a wild horse (or several), and recent abductors . . . keeping loose with the running kept her brain in check that she was still fit in surviving. Or at least, running away.

. . .

_ “Kaori, don't you dare stop running. Don't slow up, they're right behind us. We rested too long and let them get on our tails too quickly!” _

_Ten years old and in tattered clothes and chin-length hair, a grimy girl ran with her mother, thin-limbed and ready to give in at any moment. Her mother's tawny colored hair streaked behind her as ironically, she was the one trying to keep up with her own daughter. She was far from a shinobi, merely just a foreign outsider that resided in the village for the past decade or so. She didn't have near the caliber of speed her daughter had been trained to run at. “Keep running!”_

_ Before she knew it, there were kunai literally lashing at their heels, and her increasing speed allowed her to miss every single one. Though her mother wouldn't be so lucky, taking at least two to the left leg and even more in the back once she was down. _

_“MAMA, get up, we have to keep going, MAMA, PLEASE.”_

. . .

“PLEASE, Kaori-chan, I need a freakin' rest,” Naruto was complaining, breaking out into a sweat. “I don't see how you keep going like that. It's making me sick.” He finally paused, laying sprawled out on his back to face the sky above just beside Kakashi's feet.

Kaori was barely breathing hard. “Ehh, sorry, Naruto. I lost track of time.”

Sakura checked the position of the sun in the sky. “Over an hour of running, I would say,” she added. “Kakashi-sensei doesn't even make us run that long for training on most days, right, Sensei?”

He merely made a small sound in acknowledgement of his name.

“I just . . . like running,” she stated sheepishly. She shrugged her shoulders and the violet smock she wore cascaded further down over her left shoulder. She gave Sakura a light smile before prodding Naruto with her sandal as he lay there, expelled, on the ground. “You admit you can't hold out as long as a woman then, yeah?”

The feminism was music to Sakura's ears as she jumped in and started harassing Naruto about his lack of manliness and his inability to commit. Sai didn't even hesitate in actually saying some of the first words he had spoken all day out of his sketching though they were much more derogatory comments, naturally.

“Oiii, Ero-Sannin has taught me well, so don't give me that crap!” he huffed in retaliation. “If he were here right now, we would be the ones mocking YOU!”

Kaori gave a shrill laugh. “Ero-Sannin? Like, the old man that you talk about all the time? Naruto, didn't you tell me he was like in that old grandpa club with Hatak—”

“IDIOT!” he screamed at her, trying his hardest not to laugh at the obviously quickly changed demeanor of their leader. “Kaori-chan, I–I never said such things, y–you must have been imagining it or whatever!”

Sweat began collecting on Sakura's brow while Kaori just laughed out loud as if there was no wrong to the statement, not even acknowledging the jounin had his head cocked at a sort of defeated and bewildered angle. “Sometimes I wonder from the stories you guys tell about the leaf village if there really is a middle generation between people our age and the elderly lot . . . you guys can't have many middle-aged friends like Doc since I haven't—WHAT?!”

Though Sai had a completely pleased look on his face like always, Naruto and Sakura were turning blue trying to either control laughter or save their dignity or a little of both. All she could think of was that age had to be a damn sensitive topic to bring up around ninja.

Blinking innocently, she shrugged her shoulders and scratched the back of her shoulders.

And then she realized that there were more than the four sensed chakra users surrounding her. She could sense a fifth one now though faint and completely behind her in the direction of deeper in the village.

She whirled around as quickly as possible, her stomach churning with butterflies and her eyes wide, green and alert.

“. . . Something's wrong.”

Kaori had said it. Even though he was seemingly moping, Kakashi had simultaneously thought it.

Suddenly upset, her stomach sank and her eyes looked towards the direction of the doctor's house. Chills went up and down her arms as she felt a steady chakra flow come quickly and go just as fast.

Breath hitched in her throat, she looked immediately to the only one that wasn't crazy or preoccupied at the moment, saw his gray eye, just as stern, and didn't think a moment more before she took a leaping bound from where she stood and set off in a run faster than she had ever run before back towards the direction of the doctor's clinic.

He didn't spare her a second thought before doing the same, pocketing the book faster than the eye could see, and the other three, finally catching on, snapped out of their joking or hysterical states and followed suit.

Was she crazy not to be running in the other way, especially since that chakra user could be practically anywhere now and more or less laying in wait for her so she could be abducted again? The dread she had felt in her stomach this morning, one stronger than the day even after her talk with Kira, was recurring and even stronger than ever before. She only knew that she had another four to back her up if she needed it.

Less than two minutes and she was with the other four outside the sliding door, stepping out of her sandals and peering into the empty living area. She couldn't sense it anymore, and she couldn't tell if that was a good or a bad thing. Did they come into her room hoping to find her there and then leave once they found nothing there?

“Doc?” she called out loudly, knowing it was probably in vain since he was on the other side of the house treating patients in the clinic. The four leaf ninja followed in behind her, scavenging the entire house both inside and out. And the first place she thought to check would be her room just to see if all was in tact.

She threw open the door. A closed window and an unmade bed . . . completely how she left it.

Running down the hall, the dread set in further, wondering if they could be masking their chakra just to snag her when she least expected it. “Doc, was someone here just now?” she called out again, rushing down the hall to his room.

He wasn't occupying it, as was expected at this hour, so she took the passage through the closet of his medicines that led into the clinic, wondering if he was in an examination room or his office.

And once she arrived in the main part of the clinic, she noticed the freezer room that contained the more volatile medicines and needed to be stored at lower temperatures was left wide open. “Doc, you in there?” Kaori called once more, staring down the small, lit closet space, shivering not from the cold but from the silence that responded.

The waiting room was empty, and the examination room was bare.

Her heart was hammering in her chest. “Hello? Seriously, not the time for running out, Doc, something's up and—”

Her heart was hammering in her throat, and for a good reason.

Then the beating stopped.

She stopped.

She barely missed the glimpse of him.

But in his office and in his chair he sat, arms on the rests, reclined back.

White doctor's coat tainted with crimson blood that wasn't of any patient's.

A kunai nicely buried right in his chest.

Kaori was going to be absolutely sick, and Naruto was immediately behind her before her body could think to react.

He saw immediately what she saw, and didn't think a second more as he wrapped his tanner hands and arms around her as she stumbled backwards into him and gasped for air. Her screams were more than the earthly scream, louder than anything he ever knew. Louder than Chidori, louder than the magnitude of a thousand landslides. Yet he almost didn't hear her at all.

Head in a rush, she still couldn't allow her brain remind her to naturally breathe. Her screaming had already alerted the rest of those in the house to her position, but she wasn't even aware of how loud she was. Her eyes, fiercer green than ever before, fixated on the kunai in his chest, and her nails dug into the black fabric of Naruto's clothing, past the fibers and all the way into his arms. Distressed and fighting another series of sobs coming on, she wailed and screamed and thrashed despite how still he was trying to hold her to him. His face pressed against the side of hers from behind, teeth bared while he tried to avoid the sight of the dead man in the chair.

He couldn't even begin to think of what to do as she struggled, her body wracking with shakes and adrenaline pumping through her veins while she still thrashed, trying to get him to release her. But Naruto wouldn't give Kaori the chance because he knew based on her history, the first thing she would do was take that same kunai in his chest and plunge it into her own heart.

She had knocked them back into the corner between the doorway's wall and the bookshelf behind the desk and the chair where he lay. Her unchecked caterwauling and gasping for air finally caused a set of intervening hands to come in and pry the blond boy from her.

“Naruto, let her go,” Kakashi told him lowly, firm grip on his shoulder. The jinchurriki boy fought him for a moment, holding onto her as hard and tightly as he could to keep her from slumping to the floor in one huge mess or hurling herself into the knife. “ _Naruto._ ”

Finally her struggling was too much for him to bear as he fought against his sensei's prying hand pulling him away from her. All at once, she had broken loose, stumbling to the chair a few feet away. She didn't resist climbing into his lap like she had done time and time again when she needed consoling. But his skin was graying and his body was cool to the touch.

Throwing himself out into the hallway, Naruto screamed just as ungodly loud, cursing as tears that had stung his eyes before overflowed out over his cheeks and face. Even Sai, shocked, didn't say anything in retaliation to his teammate's reaction.

He brushed past the pink-haired girl who stood clutching a hand to her mouth, avoiding a loud series of gasping breaths to surface from the back of her throat. And still tears spilled out of her terrified jade eyes as her back stood turned from the open doorway that Kakashi walked slowly out of.

The magnitude of her voice once again unchecked, she clung to his cold, dead body, sobbing and screaming as loud as she could manage. From behind his mask, the copy ninja ground his teeth together impossibly so, finding a brace by leaning against the wall in the outside hallway. The sound of Kaori's screams penetrated him so hard that his ears rang incessantly and his head only rolled back against the wall, eyes closed and nose parallel with the ceiling just a few feet above him. He let out the slowest possible sigh his lungs could manage.

Naruto had completely left. He exited the house so quickly that the door was left open from where he left outside to bound out into the village, cursing, screaming, seeking revenge. How could someone kill so mercilessly when it was Kaori they were actually after? He wanted blood for them killing her guardian as well as her spirit. He would find them, kill them all one by one for what they had done to her. She didn't deserve any of it, and he doctor had been killed when they were all so happy and about to live their lives normally once more . . .

Having had enough and still in some respect, Sai shut the door, walking dazed out of the hallway, leaving his captain and female teammate to stand and take in the drama from the room they stood outside.

She felt as if she had been laying on his corpse for hours, the tears still coming, the air in her lungs being expelled almost as soon as it reached the depths inside. Her head spun and she finally felt all the sickness and fatigue rush to her head at once. Inches from her hand was the kunai that had done the deed and killed her protecter, her guardian, her adopted father. She had sobbed countless words against his neck in the time she lay there, wishing it were all a dream. She loved him, he was hers, she was his, they fought, but he took care of her, and that's how it was. He was dead, and that how it wasn't supposed to be.

Her legitimate father. Her mother. Now Doc.

She spent a good while there, and even Sakura, knowing that the body needed to be handled with as soon as possible before decay set in, didn't even bother in interrupting her.

Her eyes washed over the sight of him, and normally the sight of blood made her sick once she stared at it longer than just a few seconds, but the fact she wasn't staring directly at the blood and more so at the kunai itself was keeping her from actually vomiting right then and there.

And then she saw it.

The anomaly in this whole thing.

She had only hoped it would lead to a parallel universe where everything was just all and right with the world once again, but it only set reality in stone.

A single, flaxen strand of hair, coiled halfway about the shaft of the knife and dangling its way to dip its other end in Morio's deep crimson blood.

All the dizzying and sick thoughts rushed through her head and finally fixated on one thing and one thing only.

She didn't spare a second thought, and before she registered it herself, she had bolted away from him, stolen the kunai from his chest, and leapt out the window into the depths of the village.

It wasn't an unthought, random act.

She was on a mission.

••••••••••

Her legs were pounding, and she had blood all over the front of her, carrying the same weapon that had caused the crimson rush. It turned heads with the few villagers she passed, but she kept running, too fast for them to think it could have been real. She was a vapor in this town, and her only solidification to this place was now dead.

She kept telling herself not to vomit even though that was the first thing her body needed to do after going through shock that quickly. It was nine years prior all over again, but this time all fingers pointed to one culprit.

All she could think of was how stupid she was not to have dealt with him the night she had talked to him almost a week before. He was acting shady and it wasn't because he was ashamed of being linked to his brother. It was because he _reveled_ in it.

He had mocked her, told her the future in front of her face, and then carried out the deed only days later.

She knew that she was talking to Shin but couldn't register anything else except his shocked face more or less matching her pale, seemingly emotionless one. “Kaori-chan, who did this to—”

Sakura slowly opened the door when she heard the sobbing subside, hoping to finally be able to take the doctor elsewhere. “Kakashi-sensei, she's—!”

The jounin was out the same window she had only exited moments before before Sakura could even finish her sentence.

“Tell me where fucking Kira is, Shin.”

“What would Kira have to do with the fact that you're—”

In her fit of rage, she took him with her free hand by the arm and slung him against the wall nearest the both of them. “WHERE IS KIRA?!”

The boy was left speechless, perhaps in pain from the sudden harshness she had used with him, the green fire in her eyes or the shrillness and shortness in her voice. “The grot–grotto,” he managed. “Ka–Kaori-chan, who hurt you?”

The reawakened kunoichi merely released him and backed away stiffly. Her hand gripped around the kunai knife as hard as her white knuckles would let her. “Tell your father that Morio is dead.

“And that _Kira_ was the one who _killed_ him.”

She was off quicker than he could register in the direction she had gone to tame the mare, and split seconds later he was interrogated by two out of the four nins that had been assigned to look after her. He pointed off in the same direction, scared speechless, and finally ran off towards the house screaming for Kenji and Iku.

She had reached the depths of the rocky crags, knew that he was more or less on the other side in the field. Morio had been wary of her venturing here when she had tamed the roan mare for the sheer reason that it was in the open and outside the village so much that any abducting ninja could strike, but at this point in time, she could care less if all of her father's enemies were waiting for her on the other side.

Her head was pounding with the sound of her heart in her ears, and she was running as fast as she could possibly manage through the entirety of the dark, unlit cave.

It seemed like days until she got to the end, and only a silhouette against the late-day sky shone plain as the day itself at the exit.

Her instincts kicked in, and she didn't have to think, only flung the kunai as hard as she could full force at the figure. “DOES THAT LOOK FAMILIAR TO YOU?!” she screeched, easily watching as it's glinting blade fell at an angle into the dirt from being blocked by an equally sharp object.

Three shuriken hurtled towards her head as she finally broke through from the cave to swing at him with a bare fist. Easily, she avoided them and plowed on into the flaxen-haired foe that didn't so much as bat an eye at her.

Her fist missed the jaw she was aiming at, and so she quickly kicked as hard as she could, full force against his side. His arm circled her leg before it managed to send him into the dirt, and she found herself being lifted, spun, and finally thrown against the craggy surface of the outside of the grotto they stood at. Her back hit full force, then she crumbled down with some of the remains to the grass and dirt plains only to push herself back up and throw a series of uncontrolled, undisciplined punches as fast as she could.

Seldom few hit, but when they did, she felt her own knuckles ring out in a painful song. She had never been one for the taijutsu type, and even worse, she hadn't done this in nearly a decade.

He intended to beat her senseless but not completely kill her, and so when he finally found another opening, he went straight for the neck, crushing her windpipe momentarily with his grip until she went limp and then finally threw her down.

Her eyes wide, Kaori gasped for air both from the grab and again from having the wind further knocked out of her as she collided at full force with the earth. “Yeah, Masao would have done the exact same to you, I'm sure,” Kira sung out above her while she gasped and coughed her lungs back into her system.

Shaking, she brought herself back up with his words, screaming and throwing more punches at him in her unchecked rage. “DID YOU KILL HIM?!” she roared, her hair thrashing about her in a frenzied, uncontrollable mess.

Again, he found another opening and this time held her up against the cragged wall with a knee to her stomach and a hand tangled in a thick mass of her hair near her scalp. “Do you even need to ask?”

“DID YOU KILL HIM?!” she screamed at him again, writhing against the wall as much as she could which was admittedly not much. His hand moved from her hair closer to over her throat once more when he felt them, avoiding her question.

The blond boy, eyes now red and his older companion with silver hair stood moments from them, the other two remaining to be seen if they were around at all. “So, you brought your goons with you, Kaori-san, thinking that's going to even the fight some?”

He directed his words towards both Naruto and Kakashi now before Naruto could get a word out. Kaori had barely noticed the kunai wrapped inside his pinky finger with the same hand that was just an inch hovering over her throat. “Now, we can't have any intervening in this situation, guys,” he stated coolly. “Another step, and I've no problem slitting her throat.”

“He won't do it!” Kaori managed before he wrapped thumb and middle finger around her neck just underneath her jaw entirely, causing her to go limp again. Still she spoke as much as she could manage though extremely hoarse. “They always need me alive before they . . . take me to their main leader who—”

“Alright, Kaori, that's enough,” Kira growled again, squeezing even harder with his fingers into her neck. “You're all about assuming the predictable just like _you_ insist on being predictable.”

His blue eyes were almost white while he stared into hers as much as he could. “I mean, it was easy for me to come here because I knew that you would come looking once you put it all together. And it was easy for me to kill your _lovey_ doctor when you knew something was wrong, but you stayed away anyway because I made you uneasy. At least he wasn't _stupid_ enough to fight like you're trying to do right now.”

With what strength she could manage in the position, she raised one arm just above his knee to knock him out just enough to get away. But he saw through her sneaky act and used the other hand to twist that hand back against the wall. A helpless, half-silent cry emitted out the back of her throat. “See? _Predictable,_ Kaori! We're so used to getting you more and more now because you predictably run into the same situations and run away in the same fashions.

“You know, I'm beginning to think this bloodline limit of yours just isn't worth all the hassle we have to go through . . . putting up with a little girl is just annoying after a while.”

Her mind snapped when she heard it, and Kakashi had totally been correct when he had told her they were after her just for that reason. She had only thought of it as a last revenge against her father since she was the only surviving piece of him.

Voice louder than before and amazingly not hoarse from his grip, she shouted into his face. “You killed him just so you could get some stupid BLOODLINE that I don't even WANT?!” Struggling with what strength she had left, she broke her restrained hand away from him and used her feet to kick him directly out of her reach. The kunai barely grazed her throat, cutting a few hairs away but then retreating back with his hand as he went back from the force of her kick.

“You WANT IT?!” she screamed again, performing a series of hand signs just as he went to throw the kunai at her.

“SUITON: SUIHACHI!” she called out, balling her right hand. Holding her arm out she swatted the kunai away as it made a minor cut into the outside of her fisted palm. From her hand, water spouted forth from practically nowhere at all, gushing out as hard as it could. Immediately, the force of the water hit Kira directly in the torso. “YOU _REALLY_ WANT IT, KIRA?”

His eyes were wider and he went to rush in just as she performed the next set of hand seals. Simultaneously, Kakashi had moved his headband to watch with his Sharingan, taking in the motion of her hand seals. “RAITON!”

As soon as she had screamed it, electric sparks made her hair stand on end. Water continued spilling on her while electric currents traveled between the hairs on her arms, over her skin and clothes. A blue, electric ball of chakra flickered in her left hand while her right hand took the full force of the water hitting the back of it.

Before Kira could reach her, he stopped, knowing that if he got anywhere close to the lightning-style jutsu, he was literal barbeque.

“Kira, you _fucking_ idiot, you're getting full force of this shit for screwing with me . . .” Kaori spoke lowly as possible before throwing both hands together at the same time, palms flat.

“Naruto, move!” Kakashi shouted at the boy who was still just moments from Kaori and completely within range of getting blasted as well. The jounin hoisted him from their position to a higher ledge of the rocky edge of the outside of the cave just as an explosion of water and electric lightning-styled chakra merged together. She was far from being electrocuted.

“RANTON . . . RAVEN SPIRIT, STORM RELEASE!”

No sooner had she screamed it, an earth-quaking, ear-shattering screech pierced the ears of all of them just as approximately thirty blue sized blurs of electric chakra circled around her, spiraling higher and higher into the air within a veil of encircling black clouds.

In the moment of it all, Kira had watched the blurs turn into full formed birds, ravens more specifically, and Kaori moved aside, letting all the water from the rock she was behind hit him full force as possible face-on.

He didn't even get a single breath in before she felt all her chakra deplete and her head start swimming. Then one by one, each raven-shaped chakra form shot full force at his body as fluid as water, disappearing once they hit the surface and entered his chakra current.

It was overkill, but she didn't care. She was probably going to fall out and faint on the spot before it was all over, but again, she didn't care. She watched him suffer, watched the light leave his eyes as he stood there, electrocuted from the inside out like a short circuit gone bad. Fried, burning, wet, and singeing with the smell of burning organs from inside.

She gasped for a breath, staggering to one knee as the last few chakra birds flew into his body. He seized completely for a few moments just as Naruto called out her name which sounded like miles away to her. Her head spun, she saw Kira start to go down, and finally all that chakra and then some exited him and reentered her smoothly and non-aggressively unlike just before.

She regained all the breath she had, her head perking back up before she sat there, on hands and knees just inches from his lifeless, chakra-ridden body.

And as Sakura and Sai appeared just seconds later from the grotto's exit, she could only do the first thing that came to mind and take the bloody kunai that he had deflected earlier from the earth and grip it firmly in her hands.

“KAORI-SAN!” Sakura was screaming at her, only to assume for the moment what had happened as the brunette sprung from her spot to jump at the wet, fried, lifeless body of the traitorous Kira.

She lodged the kunai in his chest, took it out, plunged it in again, and again, and again.

“Kaori, NO,” Naruto was screaming at her, now at her holding her hand back when she went to draw the knife back out again. Completely wet and shaking, she was now flecked with Kira's blood, screaming again like she didn't have any volume control to her voice whatsoever. “Stop it, he's DEAD.”

“HE KILLED HIM,” she screamed as hard as she could, finally resorting to sobbing. “HE KILLED DOC, AND HIS DEATH ISN'T ENOUGH! It's NOT ENOUGH, DAMMIT!” She fought the strength of his hand holding her back and plunged it once more into his chest cavity. “It's NEVER going to be enough.”

Instead of watching in horror, Sakura rose a question to Kakashi in a shaky breath once she could regain herself. “Kakashi-sensei, what's going to happen to her? I–I mean . . . we can't just leave her in danger here.”

The jounin didn't even look at his female student and instead made a short few paces back towards the overhanging part of the cave, intent to get back to the village via the grotto. “That's why we have to take her with us.”


	8. VII: Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _I'm missing your laugh. How did it break?  
And when did your eyes begin to look fake?  
I hope you're as happy as you're pretending.”_  
—Dashboard Confessional (“Screaming Infidelities”)

She had packed as much as she could have possibly managed though completely reluctantly. Kaori insisted on letting them leave her, but after hours of coaxing from Naruto and a makeshift burial that she wasn't satisfied with for Morio, she pretty much let him drag her wherever. Izu and his two sons didn't even know of her whereabouts, and it made her sick to think she was leaving them without a word, but they couldn't handle the risk of them being an information source to her location down the road.

Her books had been left along with most of her other possessions, and mostly only clothes and must-have keepsakes were what plagued her travel pack. She wasn't even carrying it since she had a bruised back as well as a pair of more or less fractured hands from bone-splintering punches she had dealt Kira.

The enemy hadn't come to call and finish the deed, and Team Kakashi had been left to assume that Kira had solely been working on his own, mainly in regards towards revenge for how Kaori had dealt with Masao approximately a month before. The time lapse and the conversation before had been the wool pulled over all of their eyes, oblivious to the fact that anything of such magnitude would be occurring after their stay. Though, had they not stayed this long, they knew that their original mission to protect Kaori would have been in vain.

Sai and Kakashi were carrying double loads, and though Naruto wasn't carrying actual luggage, his back space was taken up with a silent girl. No one had spoken a word since they set off just as dusk had fallen over the village that evening, so Naruto was completely oblivious to the conscious state of her. Her breathing was easy, light as always, and her head weighted down against his shoulder.

They'd been traveling hours already, and Kakashi's main concern was getting out of the mountainous region that was host to the rogue ninja so that their chances of being spotted or attacked would be next to none. Eventually with a dead Kira, they would catch on and come seeking her out once more, but escaping back to Konoha (a village with protection to spare) as quickly as possible and trying to mask their trail was the biggest concern at the moment.

Not a cloud was in the sky, and the warming temperatures told them that not only were they making good time, but they were closer out of the naturally cooler mountain range. “Once we get to the grasslands, we'll camp down for the night,” Kakashi told his unit in a low voice as they kept up their steady pace. Naruto felt as Kaori laced her fingers tighter together against his chest and shifted his head slightly to catch a glimpse of her face over his left shoulder.

It was still awkward. He had no idea what to say to her. Though he had dealt with loss before, it hadn't been a hands on walk-in-on-your-dead-guardian kind of loss, and he had experienced it indirectly, just grown up not knowing how it felt. “Kaori-chan, you doing okay?” he asked in the happiest, non-depressed tone he could manage, laughing a bit as he said it. “I'm sorry if it's a kind of a rocky ride, these mountains are horrible, and I'm not used to carrying people—”

“I'm fine,” she murmured darkly against his neck, causing him to hush and turn red for just a moment.

It was another stretch of ten or fifteen minutes more before the crew finally went from the foliage of the trees down never ending slopes to arrive at grassy terrain with rolling hills. Kaori didn't even realize it when Naruto had mentioned it before, but it was a lot smoother just based on the evened area of land. “Here,” the jounin spoke up again before Naruto slowed to a complete stop and kneeled down just enough for his riding companion to slide easily off of his back.

They unloaded their packs, rolled out their bags and set up a series of four tents though each was big enough to probably house two or three people. “Kaori-san, you can share with me,” Sakura told her before taking off the wraps she had secured around her hands to apply a steady flow of green chakra. “How do they feel?”

“Like they're broken.”

The deadpanned voice took her aback even though Sakura knew good and well that her reaction was normal for what had just happened over the course of the day's events. Her eyes averted from her face and she went back to wrapping the gauzy cloth around both bruised hands. “And your back?” she asked before lifting the back of her smock to take off the gauze to let the wounds at least breathe for a second.

“Like I got thrown against a rock multiple times.”

She coughed when the pressure of Sakura's healing chakra pressed against her back, almost cutting her air supply completely off. And then once finished re-bandaging her wounds, she inspected the bruises and cuts around her neck.

Kaori didn't even let her ask. “Like I'd been choked and strangled.”

Frowning, Sakura finally finished and simply lightly hugged her about the shoulders, taking Kaori aback completely. “I'm sorry we couldn't get there in time,” she whispered against her friend's ear. “You'll like Konoha though, I promise,” she added before releasing her and turning her frown into a light smile. “Although it's a lot warmer, so you might get hot easily . . .”

“Turning in,” Kakashi told them. “We need to leave before the sun rises. Who wants to take the first watch?” Raising a hand, Naruto merely grunted before eyeing Kaori, and that was all Sai needed to hear before disappearing inside of his tent until he got woken for his turn to stay up.

Sakura ushered the brunette inside though Kaori hardly moved. “I'm not really tired, Sakura,” she told her simply. “I got sleep on the journey here.”

“But, you—”

Shaking her head, Kaori avoided her gaze and stared straight out past the tents at the empty expanse of wind-whipped grasslands. “I'll be fine. I just kind of want to sit out here for a while.”

Immediately, Sakura's eyes glanced to Naruto who had already taken a seat a good few meters out past the encampment. Heaving a sigh, she nodded, waved her hand and feigned a smile at her before disappearing into the tent herself.

The first thing she did was completely take in the vastness of the sky and the stars, almost crushed by the weight of the sight of them. The deep indigo and blue-green hue was terrifyingly gorgeous enough, but to top it was the innumerable amount of white sparkling stars that she had never been able to see before. All her life she had been surrounded by mountains; she never had any knowledge that the sky existed this way.

Once she caught her breath, she whirled around, noting a faint rustling and then saw the jounin of the group sit outside next to his tent, cracking open his novel. The light from the stars was definitely enough to light his pages for reading, she figured. She stared at him though this time, for once, he didn't look up at her, and she knew that _he_ knew she wasn't ready to explain the ways of her jutsu.

Catching another breath she finally realized she was holding, she turned her gaze out to the blond sitting meters away and made the short trek to him. He didn't move at all, didn't acknowledge she was now lowering herself to sit adjacent to him. He merely sat at attention looking out over the never-ending grasslands like she had.

“I've never seen anything this _big_ before,” she commented lowly, holding her hands limply out in front of her with sore arms. “Like, this is seriously where the sky and the earth meet, isn't it?”

Finally turning his head, the boy stared her in the eyes with his own bright blue ones. “Kaori-chan . . . it's okay to be upset,” he commented. This whole small talk thing, talking about the vastness of nature, even though she might be intimidated by the sublimity of it all, was just a cover up for her physical, mental and emotional pain. “And I take fault for not realizing there was something wrong,” he added, almost whispering the last few words.

She swallowed hard, trying to pretend like nothing was amiss and that she shouldn't be distraught, but upon feeling a lump she didn't know was in her throat, her eyes began to burn. Quickly she turned away from his penetrating stare, let out a shuddering breath, and instinctively clung to his arm with both of hers. Her cheek found his shoulder before the tears actually came, and then the next thing she knew, her teeth were grinding together to keep from sobbing out loud like she had so often earlier.

“He didn't deserve to go like that,” she finally managed, her tone higher than normal. “He took me in even though I didn't want him to, and he protected me against all the odds. It wasn't fair that he had to go and that I'm still here.”

Sternly though he knew she couldn't see him, Naruto stared at her. “Don't you realize he wanted you to still be here? That's probably all could think about before he died, Kaori.” He said it in a deeper tone of voice than she had ever heard him talk before, so serious and so piercing that she choked back another sob and clung tighter to his arm. “You're still here, and that's all that matters to him now. I can almost assuredly say the same thing about my dad.”

Blinking back tears and sniffling a little, she released her grip at his last statement and looked up at him. “Your dad?” she managed softly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Turning his head toward the sky, he nodded. “Yeah. He was the Hokage of our village. And he sacrificed himself by sealing the nine-tailed fox inside of me to save the entire leaf village . . . and so I could have something to protect me.”

She had heard of such people . . . ones that housed monsters and died once the seal on that monster had been released completely. “You mean a jin–jinki—” She couldn't remember the word she had learned so long ago.

“Jinchurriki,” he corrected her. “You should know. Yugito Nii was one from your village around the time you were there.”

Nodding, Kaori remembered the name. “Of course, she was one of the best kunoichi of our era. We all looked up to her when we were kids. Kumogakure never had a finer female ninja. I didn't even come close.”

Naruto stared at her, noting her tears had subsided slightly. “Yugito died, Kaori-chan.”

“ _Died?_ ” she repeated. “But . . . she could control the two-tail . . . how—”

“Before they were all killed, some assholes that called themselves the Akatsuki sought her out and extracted the beast from her and left her dead. They didn't get your other jinchurriki even though they tried. He's insanely strong _and_ the brother of the Raikage though and didn't stand a chance! They came from the Yotsuki clan and took over after your father—” And then he realized that he had possibly said too much because Kaori had never brought it up with them personally; it was Morio who had given them the background on her.

She huffed, thoroughly upset, and pulled herself away from him. “I don't make a habit of talking about my past, and _no,_ I didn't know,” she added with a bite. But they had been part of the main effort towards driving she and her mother out of the village nine years prior, another clan that claimed to have ties to the same bloodline who wanted their equal share of power with her father and his lineage.

“Kaori-chan, I'm sorry, I assumed you knew that we knew about—”

“I knew that your captain knew,” the girl retorted dryly, referring to Kakashi. “He brought it up all rather suddenly. But I don't blame you since Doc apparently decided . . . that he should explain everything.”

She rose to a stand, and Naruto, hastily, did the same, a hand on her arm. “It's not your fault that you heard. But Naruto, I can't keep living with the past as a reminder to how I got here now. I've spent my _whole_ life running from it, and no matter how much I run from it, I can't get it away from me. It always catches up. The last thing I need is a reminder or a talk about how the past put me here.”

He let his hand slip down her arm to lightly squeeze her injured hand over the gauze. “I know,” he said as dryly as possible. “I know because I hate revisiting how I got here, too. But have you ever thought to _stop_ running and _face_ it head on? You've never gotten an ounce of closure from this, Kaori-chan. They're still here, and they're _still_ going to come after you.”

She shook her head and exhaled sharply, feeling tears welling up in her eyes again. “I can't because I can't do it all on my own, you know? They're stronger than me. This guy . . . the guy that wants me. The past time I was abducted, I saw what he's been working on. He's derived some chakra absorbing metal that doesn't even allow me to break out of a prison, much less perform a jutsu. I can't do this on my own. I can't even afford to let myself get caught again, and I'm useless and defenseless, and all I know _how_ to do is to _RUN._ ”

He was hugging her around the shoulders now while she buried her face against the crook of his neck and the black turtleneck part of his shirt. “I haven't been able to feel safe in such a long time, Naruto, and you guys have given me some hope of that for a short amount of time. I just don't know how Konoha—”

“Konoha is going to protect you. _I'm_ going to protect you, Kaori-chan. It was the mission from the beginning when our team was assigned it, and I'm going to make sure it stays the mission once we get back home.” He held her as tightly as possible with his arms without touching her back too hard. “You just have to promise that you won't run from any of us or from me.”

The green-eyed girl once again blinked back tears for the millionth time that day and drew herself away from him. “I won't,” she managed to say with a smile. “I won't.” She flexed her hands as best as she could despite the soreness and wiped her entire face rid of the tears with the back of her smock's sleeve. “But you have to realize . . . I'm never going to stop running. Period.”

She glared out over at the wind-rustled grasslands before them, lighted perfectly enough with the huge expanse of stars and blue-green sky overhead. Chills not just from the wind ran up and down her spine before she snapped her bright green eyes to look right at his. “I mean, that field looks like it goes on for days,” she continued, a large grin spreading slowly across her face. “What do you say?”

Naruto knew good and well that resting was probably the best bet for her at the moment, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn't resist an invitation that came with those eyes and that smile. “Well, I guess . . . ” he started.

It was all Kaori needed to hear before tapping him on the nose and bolting off. “It!”

He only let out a low growl before ensuing and shouting at her even while the others were most likely asleep. “Not fair, you know I haven't been able to catch you yet!”

At least, two of the other three were sleeping. A forgotten, seemingly reading Kakashi watched as his student almost mimicked the Yellow Flash that he once knew. In terms of speed, Kaori had Naruto beat by years more experience. “Oh, boy . . . getting sleep tonight is going to be a _real_ treat,” he muttered exasperatedly to himself albeit with a slight smile over his face.


	9. VIII: Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _With no place to go, no place to go . . .”_  
—Avril Lavigne (“Nobody's Home”)

He put her down once they arrived at the large red gate, patted her on the back, and watched as she stared up at the magnitude of the entrance to the village of Konohagakure. “Hey, Kaori-chan, it's pretty impressive, yeah?” Naruto asked, ushering her forward. “Welcome to Konoha!”

_Even the Land of Lightning was nothing of this caliber,_ she thought to herself. _This place is absolutely . . ._ “Huge . . .” she managed to mutter, catching her breath in her chest as they happened in on the large road entering the village. Naruto released his arm around her to wave at a duo sitting at attention just inside the gate. “Oi, Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san, what's been goin' on?!”

Sheepishly, Kaori avoided the stares the two gave her before starting to talk to Naruto, and Sakura didn't hesitate in ushering her alongside her and Sai. “Bah, Kaori-san, I promise this will be painless!” the pink-haired girl encouraged with a smile. “It's been such a while since we've been here, but it looks like not a thing has changed, right, Kakashi-sensei?” she inquired of her sensei, behind the lot of them.

“Yeah,” he said simply albeit a bit tired, hands in his pockets. “We need to follow up with Tsunade-sama now, if possible,” he told his students. Sakura nodded, demeanor going from unperturbed to angry as she shot behind her. “NARUTO, QUIT SCREWING AROUND, YOU CAN TALK LATER.”

Giving the chuunins a final wave, Naruto rejoined the group, and as a group of five, trekked to the Hokage's headquarters just a ways inside the village. It was designated all too well by a familiar towering building that the four leaf shinobi had been in and out of countless times to receive their missions.

Kaori didn't even realize it, but she was actually shaking just a bit before a man garbed just like Kakashi rounded the curved hallway opposite their direction. The bandana around his head and toothpick senbon in his mouth gave him away to Naruto and Sakura immediately who waved. Even Kakashi raised a hand in acknowledgement. “Ah, Genma-kun, long time no see,” he added.

“Seriously though,” the man named Genma Shuranui replied, ruffling the familiar blond head of the knucklehead ninja he knew so well. “You guys dropped off the radar for quite a while. Who's the new addition to the crew?” he added with a smile, shooting a dashing glare at Kaori whose heart actually skipped a beat. “You guys are taking in apprentices now? I want in if they look like that!”

Growling half from being tossled around by his hair and by his remark towards Kaori, Naruto broke loose of his grip and balled a fist. “Hey, she's part of the mission we were on, and she's not a 'new addition to the crew,' Genma, so don't be getting any ideas!”

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi gave an exasperated laugh before giving Genma a farewell wave. Sakura smiled apologetically at Kaori who was blushing furiously. All she could do was cradle into Sakura and whisper into her ear. “. . . I could get used to that.”

Half-frowning, Sakura stifled a giggle of disbelief. “Eugh, Kaori, Genma-san is totally older than Kakashi-sensei!” she mumbled to her out of the corner of her mouth. Kaori's small blushing and gushing fest turned into absolute mortification, and she didn't dare look behind her at the jounin looming inches above her. Still, she wasn't going to deny that the ninja they called Genma was undeniably good-looking no matter how old he might have been. However, the mystery of Kakashi's actual age was still going strong with a new twist in the mix.

Within moments, her stomach had bottomed as they approached a completely empty room aside from a desk all the way at the far end with windows. A woman with blonde hair sat at the center of the table with a mousey looking brunette beside her and another brown-haired man with a scar across his face.

“Lady Tsunade,” Sakura acknowledged the woman first, bowing before ushering Kaori to the very front of the desk. “This is Nakamura-san, the girl we were entrusted to watch over for the B-rank you sent us on.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and spoke in Kaori's ear, “Kaori-san, this is our Hokage, Tsunade-sama.”

Kakashi was surprised she had any manners in her at all when she went to immediately bow, her hair falling over her shoulders and concealing her face. Her eyes had widened when she finally realized how much power the woman in front of her actually held. “It's an honor to meet you,” she murmured almost audibly, keeping her bent over position.

Though the girl she trusted had spoken, Tsunade was glaring at Kakashi with an expression that asked, “what have you exactly done to complicate things now?” Instead, she spoke, leaning her head on her chin and staring at the crown of the head of the brunette girl that had been randomly brought before her. “Nakamura-san, to what do we owe the pleasure of your presence? Surely Kakashi has a good reason for bringing you back to us.”

Sakura swallowed hard, and even Naruto didn't state anything though he had spoken mockingly of this woman around Kaori. Surely, her demeanor right now was fearsome to behold. “Lady Tsunade, I—” Kaori began to start again before Kakashi placed a hand on her back, and she rose completely back to a stand.

“Sai, Sakura, Naruto,” he addressed his team shortly. “Wait outside while I give the mission report, thank you.” Kaori had even started to move when Sakura still held onto her hand, but Kakashi broke through, taking a stand beside her with a hand on her shoulder to keep her put in her place.

The three bowed silently before exiting the room in the same direction that they came, and Kaori almost felt as if she wanted to cry helplessly, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Why had they brought her back again, exactly?

Drumming the scarlet fingernails of her free hand on the table, Tsunade glared from the girl's bright green eyes to Kakashi's lone cold eye, waiting for an answer.

“The man that entrusted us to retrieve and protect this girl was killed by the enemy,” he merely stated. “Our fault for not realizing we had been diverted against, but you'll still have your full  ryō payment for the mission, rest assured.” Knowing Tsunade's main concern was more or less the money above all other complications, he figured getting to that point first was the best.

“He wasn't her real father. She's the illegitimate child of the Raikage that committed seppuku years ago,” he continued. “Tsunade-sama, the enemy is still after her as far as we know, possible enemies of her father, and—”

The busty woman raised a hand to silence him, leaning forward on an elbow to stare Kaori directly in the eyes. “I recognized that face,” she finally said with a minor smile. “Only had the pleasure of meeting Goro Takeshita once during my years traveling outside of Konoha, but I can see it. You're the spitting image of him; that different surname threw me off.”

Now the girl was really biting back tears, and she feared this woman completely. She had spoken illy of her legitimate father, but even so, her mien was enough to crush any spirit she had of leading a normal life from this point on. “Storm Release Jutsu?”

“Yes, ma'am,” she answered all but a bit too quickly with a sharp intake of breath.

“You've been inactive since his death, then?”

“For the most part, yes ma'am, but—”

“Your mother?”

Pausing, she reminded herself to take a breath. “She . . . died, m'lady, shortly after he killed himself. I've been living with the doctor since then.”

Grunting lowly, Tsunade turned toward the short-haired brunette on her left, Shizune, and held out her hand. The girl gave her a sheet of paper, and the Hokage began scribbling on it immediately. Kakashi spoke up, regardless.

“Her mother and the doctor both request she be married off to a suitor when she comes of age around the end of this year,” he thought to add, hoping that it would assuage any issues Tsunade had with her being in the Fire Country. He just didn't notice the anguish that had overcome her face at the realization that the doctor had told him. “We avoided the enemy ninja coming out of the mountains,” he continued. “They know that leaf ninja were involved in protecting her, but as far as they know, she's just disappeared.”

“Which is why I'm glad you brought her back, Kakashi,” Tsunade said, continuing to write her notes on the paper, Kaori trying to get a glimpse of what she was writing. “Had the enemy captured her, they'd use the fact she was earlier aided against them by leaf shinobi to their advantage. We wouldn't need a Ranton user against us, even if she was told to perform against her will.”

He didn't actually sigh, but Kaori could tell the grip on her shoulder this entire time was starting to relax from the tense grab it had been since he had held her there. “Any other details of the mission you need to know specifically aside from—?”

“Just a normal report will suffice, Kakashi.” She finally finished writing furiously before tearing the paper in half, holding one half and holding the other out to Kakashi. “And this is signing custody of the girl over to you in the meantime.”

The report he could handle, but the last bit made him replay the words again in his mind. He could hardly believe his ears, stopped, then snatched the paper probably too quickly to be respectful, glancing over it. “Ex–excuse me?”

Kaori looked quickly between the smirk on the woman's face and then to the equally shocked jounin inches above her to her right. “But—”

“Seeing as you've done the right thing with her so far and based on the letter I got during your stay from Morio on how he finds you thoroughly trustworthy, I find no other reason to leave her in other hands. Yours seem capable enough.”

He slammed a hand down, palm-first on the table. “Lady Tsunade . . . I don't even have the resources to take care of her, plus with me going on missions almost—”

“It'll be considered an S-rank mission, Kakashi, only it's one on the home front,” Tsunade told him with a wry smile. “And it's no trouble sending a cot from the hospital. You won't be responsible for paying for her stay financially; payment from this mission should be more than enough for that. It's all temporary.”

“And how temporary is temporary?” he asked with a stern but exasperated tone in his voice. “S-rank missions are meant to be mainly assassinations. Tsunade-sama, you know I can barely keep that _plant_ of mine alive, how do you expect me to take care of—”

She rose a hand, silenced him, and turned her smile into a direct look. “It's not like it'll be any different from how you looked after her when the doctor was giving you instruction, Kakashi. She'll still have the company of the others, yes, but housing and directly keeping tabs on her is going to be your mission. Understood?”

He gave a short, brief nod, dazed out of his mind, and didn't even pay Kaori a lick of attention before turning his back. “I'll . . . have the mission report for you tomorrow, then,” he muttered, not even giving a wave of leaving.

Though stunned, Kaori gave the stiffest bow she could manage, meeting those brown eyes as she rose back to a stand. “Thank you, Tsunade-sam—”

“Let's go,” his voice called to her from the doorway, and hastily she turned, making a brisk speed walk for the doorway.

The jounin shut the large door behind her, thoroughly pissed off, and not even giving his team of three a look before setting off down the hallway back in the direction that they came. “You're all free to go,” he told them as he remembered just walking down the hallway with a million other things on his mind.

Kaori paused, afraid and unsure of what to do next. Sakura took one of her wrapped hands in hers while Naruto, a bewildered look on his face stared at her for an explanation. “Are you coming?” she heard him call from down the hallway, and lowering her gaze, she waved to each of her comrades before setting off after him in just as brisk of a walk as before.

Before she knew it, she had followed him back outside, but she hadn't thought of where to begin. This is the last person she wanted to spend coming home to check in with each night, and certainly she didn't want to think of the prospect of having him be her wake up call every morning, not to mention checking and chaperoning her every move in this strange, vast place.

She suddenly realized from the setting sun how warm it was here later on in the day, and even more, how most of her clothes were suited for mountainous weather as opposed to humid, hot weather such as this climate. She sighed deeply to herself, trying to keep up pace to keep alongside him.

“Hatake-san, I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. I could go stay with Sakura . . . or Naruto . . . if you want me to, I really don't—”

“You're my responsibility,” he shot back, and for the way he said it, he sure didn't sound like he appreciated having the responsibility of taking care of her on his hands. She held her tongue the rest of the way, finally waiting until he led her down a series of small alleyways, and eventually up a few staircases to a row of apartment houses on the third floor of a complex. The second one from the stairs right in the middle of the row was where he stopped, and she watched as he fished a key from the back of his pocket, turning it into the knob and then stepping into the darkness of his dusk-lit apartment room.

It was nothing much, just the way he had left it. Shizune had made sure that things stayed in top order, he thought, seeing as after almost a month his plant Mr. Ukki hadn't shown any signs of wilting or dying. The dust was minimal, and even more, the cot that Tsunade had promised had already found its way into his room somehow in the spare room between his desk and the small kitchen area right near the front door.

Still fuming, the jounin set to work untying the headband from around his head, placing it on top of the dresser to the left of the doorway before turning around and finally acknowledging she was there while she shut the door. There was no way he was going to be able to reason with Tsunade out of this one, and he knew seeing as he was the captain of the unit that he was wholly responsible for bringing her back and since another body to take care of was now bestowed upon Tsunade, the least he could do (at least how she saw it) was to be an aid in looking after her while her life was still in the balance of danger and safety.

“The bathroom's that door next to the desk. This dresser and that closet over there are mine, but there's enough room in the closet that you can store most of the things that you brought with you. That's the kitchen. My bed, my bookcase, my desk, windows, and that's basically it. Just stay out of my stuff, and we should be good.”

She felt as if she were about to seriously burst out into tears just from the tone of his voice, completely disowning and critical. She set down the pack she had been carrying on her already sore back all day once she trekked across the room and set it down beside the cot with wheels. Luckily she had brought blankets because all that was on the cot was a simple sheet tucked over another sheet wrapped about the mattress.

“. . . Do you need me to do anything?” she asked, barely audible while he unzipped the olive vest from his body and went to hang it in the very nearly empty closet alongside a few other vests.

“No,” he told her lowly, avoiding her gaze as if he didn't even really acknowledge she was there.

“Then can I use the shower?” she questioned, staring at him even though he proceeded to go about the apartment without batting an eye in her direction.

He replied after a long pause, “Yeah.” And she trudged just as silently as before into the bathroom, closed the door, and locked it behind her.

She had never been so thankful that the silver-haired jounin would have great water pressure in his apartment . . . within just a second of turning the water on, it was scalding hot, and she undressed and unwrapped her wounds. Stepping in, she sat on the floor of the small tiled space while the water pelted at her back, searing her skin completely. But the hotter the water was, the more of a chance she had at forgetting. And so she curled herself up into a ball, arms wrapped around her knees.

The sound of the shower was loud enough that Kakashi wouldn't hear her crying.


	10. IX: Rules

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _Feels like every time I get back on my feet she come around and knock me down again.”_  
—Ray LaMontagne (“Trouble”)

She awoke with a blanket wrapped around her . . . the fact that she had grabbed it from her bag was the most that she actually remembered doing after spending some time underneath the hot water. She wasn't on the cot that they had brought for her; in fact, that was completely gone. Instead, she was on the wooden, empty part of the large windowsill beside his desk, and at her feet was a rather small but flourishing leafy plant in a pot.

Kakashi's bed was made, and she had actually wondered if he had been to sleep that night. Her eyes barely opened, she looked around the brightness of the room—the fact that the light was shining right in her eyes from the window when she awoke wasn't helping anything. “I figured since you stayed there last night you didn't need the cot after all,” she heard him say from somewhere in the room until her eyes finally focused based on the light influx inside the room.

“Um, yeah,” she murmured groggily, actually really embarrassed that he was getting a glimpse of her morning state where she wasn't put together at all . . . as opposed to him, who seemed pretty much put together, calm, toned, no matter what the circumstances. “What . . . time is it?” she managed to get out through a deep, heavy yawn, stretching her arms and cracking her back.

“Late enough that I would have been considered 'late' to meeting up with the others possibly hours ago, but seeing as I'm probably not going on any missions as long as you're here, I don't have to worry about it.” His voice sounded disdainful as if he actually enjoyed getting a mission assigned, but according to Naruto, Sai, and Sakura's portrayal of him, that just didn't fit. She twisted her lips.

“Wouldn't you much rather be glad that you have the time off?” Kaori asked, almost spitefully to the point that she was hopeful she had struck a nerve with him. He hadn't always been the nicest to her, and one of those times was definitely last night of all times. She could bite back just as hard as he tried to, she figured logically. “I mean, aren't you glad you get a chance to be lazy?”

He had been in the kitchen, leaning against the refrigerator and facing the wall opposite him, closest to his bed . . . reading a book of all things. His eyes rose from taking in the pages to finally staring at her thin almost-silhouetted form against the brightness of his window. “I can only imagine what Naruto and Sakura have been filling your head with,” he stated with a sigh, closing his book and pacing away from his leaning position.

“O-kay,” he started slowly. “Seeing as last night was not the best time to bring up all the details . . .” She watched him with a queer look before he stood within a more reasonable distance to her. For whatever reason he had taken a kunai off of his desk and started twirling it skillfully about his fingers, almost as if he were showing off.

He finally continued. “I'm far from being a qualified guardian, but regardless, we need to set some ground rules until you're no longer my responsibility.”

“Heard this before,” Kaori murmured under her breath with a wry smirk. When he gave her a look and stopped twirling his knife, she waved her hands in earnest, ushering him to continue. “No, no, go on, go on.”

Right brow quirked, he studied her before swirling the kunai about his finger once more and then holding up a single finger. “One: the main reason I've been assigned to look after you is because you're still in danger, so no running around making a fool of yourself. Lying low is the key, and unfortunately for me, that means I have to leave you cooped up here in my apartment most of the day.”

“ _Unfortunately?_ ” she cut him off. “And you mean I can't go out at _all?!_ I thought we were past this whole 'evil dictator' crap . . .”

He held a hand out to silence her. “ _Most_ of the day, Kaori,” he corrected her. “Not that you'd be able to thrive well in this heat anyway. Foreigners from everywhere save the Sand Village always find problems being out in it too much.” Kakashi stopped himself, shaking his head to stay on track. He held up another finger with the first one and gave the kunai a twirl in his other hand. “Two: if I ask you to do something, I fully expect you to do it. I like this place clean and well-managed, so don't go trashing it up when I'm not around. Don't waste the water, don't leave the lights on, and _especially_ don't open the window.”

Growling to herself, Kaori muttered under her breath again. “More like don't even breathe,” she commented, glowering and pouting away from him. It didn't even feel like Doc had been killed days ago. It was a state of denial she wasn't accepting, and this was a horrible dream that she just wanted to wake up from. There was no way at all she would be taking orders from a silver-haired loafing dictator.

Sighing, Kakashi scratched the back of his head, ruffling silver locks between his bare hands. “You really dance to the beat of your own drum, don't you?” he scoffed with an exasperated tone to his voice.

“Only cause your drum is _way_ out of tune, old man,” she groaned in response, this time purposely louder for him to hear her without having to ignore her easily. Her arms were folded, and for just waking up moments before, she had the most penetrating stare with her green eyes that she could possibly muster, her lips twisted and pouting.

He just stared at her, contemplated using his Sharingan to knock her out and put her back in her sleeping state, but then quickly decided against it when he thought of the even shriller tone she would take with him once she woke again. “Look, you're still upset about being here, and you're still upset about what's happened, and it's hard on you, but—” Pausing, he gave a sigh, knowing he just couldn't win. “C'mon, you're coming out with me.”

She threw the blanket off her legs but went straight past him for her bag that she had set down near the closet, scrambling through and throwing clothes out all over the place. Tears clouded her vision and a breath got hitched in her throat.

“Kaori, I'm letting Naruto and Sakura have you for the day, what are you doin—”

“Can't expect me to go out wearing this in this heat, _especially_ since they're yesterday's clothes!” she screamed at Kakashi full force. Once she found a taupe colored tank-top and bermuda cargo shorts, she crammed everything back into the same bag and threw herself into the bathroom, slamming the door.

••••••••••

“She's _impossible_ ,” Kakashi finally let out after an entire rant in the small vicinity where the jounins on call met. The only listener in the room was a woman with black hair cascading down her back in a bushy mass. Her red eyes looked irritated. “Kurenai, you might have a baby on your hands, but I think I'd rather take that than this. Does . . . Tsunade-sama have it out for me or something? I mean, did she mention to you that I'd done anything wrong?”

Waving her hand, Kurenai Yuuhi protested. “No, Kakashi, you're just being ridiculous. Are you listening to yourself though? The girl's never had a stable family. Lost her mother, lost the only father figure she's ever had after only several years, and she's being thrown into a foreign environment. And you call her _impossible_?”

He hung his head, wishing he had never mentioned anything. “What is it with you women always sticking together?” he questioned under his breath, feeling almost completely defeated.

Leaning forward over the table from where she sat, the black-haired jounin held the cup of water she was drinking from gingerly between her fingertips. “She probably just needs another female figure in her life.”

“Sakura has that completely taken care of.”

“An _older_ female figure,” she added, correcting him. “She's grown up through the most complicated years of her life without a mother, and it's no wonder she's no golden child you would put up on a pedestal.”

Sighing, Kakashi gave into her words. “So, what are you suggesting? That I leave her with you?”

“Leave her with _me?_ HA!” she laughed and threw back her head. “Tsunade gave you that mission, and I'm still on 'maternity leave.' I'm not going to lift a finger. I'm just here to give you advice. And trust me, do you think any other woman that you know would be willing?”

“Shizune?”

“Practically bound to Tsunade.”

“Anko?”

“Hard-ass Anko?”

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “It would be a perfect fit, believe me.”

He would have given her another name, but since he knew none, he took a seat on the couch placed against the window, leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. “Tsunade started off about how she looked just like the late Raikage, and that might be true and everything, but—” His words were lost and he licked his lips, wondering if he should even finish the thought aloud for Kurenai to hear. 

“She looks exactly like Rin,” he managed at last, barely audible. He dwelled on it a bit more, knowing Kurenai hadn't known Rin much at all before she had left them. Most of what she knew came from his stories anyway. “The same color hair, only much longer . . . green eyes instead of brown ones.” He paused, collecting his thoughts again. “And I've wanted to call her Rin so many times, but every time I hear that raspy, annoying tone, I know that could never be her. First it was with Obito about a year ago, and it was real. Now I'm scared into thinking it's Rin this time.”

Kurenai rose to a stand, pushing her chair back into the place it was under the table before she sat down on the couch beside her silver-haired companion. “Kakashi Hatake,” she started, still holding the cup in her hand. “What happened with Sasuke and Madara was hard on you, I know. You know this girl's past, so you know she can't possibly be Rin. Think about what you just said and how it relates to everything you've been ranting about.”

Though his heart grew instantly heavy at the reminder of the events of the Fourth Shinobi World War, he heaved a deep groan. “Spare me the mulling time, Kurenai. I haven't gotten rid of this headache since the week I was assigned on that mission to watch her.”

Smirking with rouged lips, she narrowed her eyes into a softened gaze while staring at him. “Did you notice the resemblance when you first saw her?”

“Yeah, and?”

“ _And . . ._ she's been a thorn in your side from the get-go?”

“Pretty much.”

Frowning, she shot him a more calculating glare. “Copy Ninja, are you growing dense, or is your headache that serious?”

He knew exactly what she was getting at, and being in a childish state of his own, wouldn't give her the satisfaction of answering that he understood her reasoning. He did, but he wouldn't accept that wholly for the reason that this “mission” was set out to ruin his life.

She had loved him wholly and completely, thick and thin, with and without Obito, and for a long time he was completely blind. When he tried to love her, he found he simply wasn't capable, yet she continued to love him still. And when she laid her life on the line to rescue him, he could feel nothing but guilt. He would have done the same for her albeit for an emptier, unladen reason aside from being teammates. She had _loved_ him . . .

Now the image of the one he couldn't love was coming back in one random girl he had been sent to simply rescue and protect. Even he could admit, yes, he wouldn't lose his cool so quickly around anyone like he had with her; he had merely been blaming it on her childish attitude. But . . . partially biased against her based on her _appearance_ and due to his guilt? Was that what this was?

“Maybe it's magic? Ever since you came back to this earth, some sorcerer in the process decided to put a spell on you . . . cursed you into thinking this girl is some doppelganger of Rin.”

He chuckled softly but entertained the thought, his mind turning a bit dark for a split moment. “That's far from it, Kurenai, but I appreciate the joke about the situation.”

“Oh, I was serious,” she stated, penetrating him with her crimson eyes. “We women are dangerous creatures. Magic spells involving them almost always foreshadows your destruction, so watch out.”

After a few moments of silence, she placed her perfectly manicured hand over his gloved one. “Try talking to her, Kakashi,” she urged. “She's gone through a lot. She probably wants to share her anguish with someone she at least knows a little bit.”

Exasperated, he drew out a sigh. “She doesn't _want_ to talk, that's part of the problem,” Kakashi somewhat defended. He shrugged it off, shaking his head to snap him out of his pensive state. “I should go,” he told her softly, a bit too wistfully. “I left her to roam the streets with Naruto. No telling what the damages are going to be.”

••••••••••

She wasn't crying, but her face was completely drenched with sweat. “This heat is _killing_ me,” Kaori panted out with that raspy, predictable whine. “It's so horribly hot here.”

“That's why they call this place the Fire Country, I guess, haha. It's not near as bad as the Sand Country . . . nothing but sand and desert for hundreds of miles.” Naruto was walking ahead of her while she dragged behind, staggering along dramatically and dragging her sandals along on the dirt road throughout town. Never had she seen this many people in her life. The Village Hidden in the Clouds was nothing like this when she was a child, but then again, her mother had done well to shelter her from most of society for obvious reasons.

“I've lived in mountainous regions my whole life. I've never been used to this kind of climate,” she finally told him all too bewildered at how he managed to wear long-sleeved clothes in the middle of summer, and a turtleneck at that. “By the way, where has Sai disappeared off to since yesterday? I figured he would be up to sticking around with us.”

Naruto and Sakura shot a look at each other before staring back at her staggering pace. “Sai's a different . . . well, he's just _different_ ,” Sakura stated. He's been a part of a different operation entirely since he was instated as a ninja and kind of likes to keep to himself . . . as if you didn't already get that.” She had said it sincerely but as if she felt bad for him almost.

Naruto didn't hesitate in chiming in. “Yeah, keep to himself, be an asshole, and draw pictures of dicks all the time since that's all he ever freakin' talks about!”

Sakura punched him instead. “You know he's not all that bad, Naruto.”

“No, but the constant harassing, even if it is playing, is just _annoying_.”

Kaori stifled laughter at the two of them through her panting before Sakura spoke again.  “Wait, do you know what a swimming pool is?” the kunoichi asked, bringing the subject back up and slowing down to look over her shoulder at a sluggish and perspiring Kaori.

She gave them a look as if they were absolute idiots, rolling her eyes as a sort of mockery to their ignorance. “. . . Of course I know what a pool is.”

“Great, and have you ever been in one?” Naruto asked almost immediately to which there was no audible response save for her continuous panting and shuffling. And then finally a shake of her head from side to side, almost ashamed. The blond blinked, wide-eyed. “AH! Kaori-chan, you've never been in a pool?!”

“Is it really that much different from a lake? How fantastic could it be?”

“If you're hot right now, it'll cool you down, that's for sure. I know for a fact there's one out back behind that set of apartments Kakashi-sensei's apartment is in,” Sakura told her, and immediately she pointed a bit to the right in the general direction they were heading. “You want to detour?” Kaori made a sour face at the prospect of seeing the familiar building from a distance . . . the last thing she wanted to do after she had been settled down and in a better mood this afternoon was to go back to being cooped up with _him_ of all people.

“Kaori-chan, you _can_ swim, right?” Naruto added with a leering smile.

Peeved, Kaori sprung up a few paces to sidle in between them. “Naruto, I have an affinity for water-based chakra. What do _you_ think?” She stuck her right bandaged hand out, the one she concentrated her water element into the most. Sakura giggled as Naruto pouted from her sudden lashing out.

“Sounds like you need to cool off in more ways than one, tch,” he muttered darkly under his breath, still loud enough for her to hear.

Both Sakura and Kaori's eyes snapped in his direction. “You wanna run that by me again?” the brunette growled, eyebrow twitching. Naruto grinned, knowing a bet that she could never win.

“Oi, Kaori-chan, Kaori-chan, I bet you to another race that whoever makes it to the pool first gets to throw the loser in, clothes and all.”

She took in his proposal with somewhat of a shock then laughed out loud. “You never give up, do you? You realize I'll just beat you here like anywhere else,” she shot back before sticking out her fist. “Deal.”

He let his own knuckles meet hers before dropping and taking a stance in front of Sakura who was now chattering on about how this was a terrible idea with the amount of people around regardless of who could win or not. “Count us off, Sakura-chan,” he stated anyway.

“Ridiculous. No, you idiot!”

“No one's gonna care.”

“Well, I care, the people around here care, and Kakashi-sensei is going to be more than miffed.”

“Kakashi-sensei's not heeere now, is he?”

But Kaori had already pushed off at a sprint. It was slower than what she was accustomed to since the heat and her injuries had already weathered her down. She could see the top of the apartment building she thought she knew was Kakashi's . . . after all, Sakura had just pointed that way.

“CHEATER!” Naruto screamed, darting between about ten villagers before cutting her off down a back alleyway she had decided to take. “And you forget, Kaori-chan! You're on my turf now . . . _I_ know the shortcuts, _I_ win the races!”

Sure enough, he jumped clear against the side of the building in the alley, ricocheted off it to the other side, and clearly jumped over the roof of the first. Before Kaori could realize what had just happened, she was on the opposite side, still turning in the direction of the apartment building she saw just a fair bit away now.

Audible screams could have been heard from the next street over where the once were as she tore through people, avoiding contact with them before turning another dark alleyway and jumping clear up the building and onto the roof as Naruto had done just before. He was nowhere in sight this high so she figured he must have returned back to ground level, and the blue crater in the ground was just eyesight away from this view.

She took to the rooftops for a few moments more before dropping down one of the open wooden gated entrances to the pool area. He was nowhere in sight, and she smiled excitedly to herself. “HA!” she cried before slumping over, hands on her knees. “I even beat you in a place that I know nothing of!”

And then she heard a sniggering laugh coming from a pair of changing rooms or bathrooms in a small building attached to the wall. “I've been here a solid _minute_ now!” he called before his tanned face emerged behind the wall.

The smile melted off her face with the rest of the sweat on her face. “Oh, come _on_ , it was unfair from the start!” she caterwauled, turning a 180 from her previous demeanor. He was slowly approaching her while Sakura leisurely strolled in behind her, arms folded and lips pursed tightly.

“No, Naruto, don't you DARE,” Kaori shot out at him before countering his approach by walking across the other side of the pool.

“A bet's a bet!” he yelled back, closing in on her as he cornered her against a wall with no entrances or exits. Turning her brisk walk into a minor run about the pool, she ground her teeth when he started narrowing the gap, stopping to turn from a clockwise to a counter-clockwise direction to nab her.

She thought she had him escaped when she found herself darting towards the other entrance on the opposite side of the pool area until he clearly walked across the water with his chakra keeping him afloat. Her eyes widened as he took two longer strides, grabbing her by the waist.

“Be _careful_ , she's still _hurt_ ,” Sakura shouted at him who was now turning her upside-down as she squealed and tried tearing herself away from his ginger grip.

“Naruto, don't _please_!” she pleaded with him while he found an easier way to maneuver her in his arms so he could make a clean toss. She pouted and blushed all at once when he was cradling her like a baby. She stared up at his dazzling white smile before she realized what was happening, and then he swung his arms out with her in them to throw her over the edge and into the water.

“Naruto,” a male voice rang out from behind him where Sakura had stood by herself just moments before. He winced, hearing it a moment too late. Instead of hearing the splash like he thought he was going to, he realized he was slowly being tipped over the edge as well. Kaori had forced all her inertia into bringing Naruto over with her as they both hit the water at exactly the same time.

She resurfaced first, jumping on him as he came up slowly, defeated, and looking with a weak smile at his teacher's unpleased face. “I _hate_ you!” she screamed through laughter at him, trying to drag him back down and still unaware of Kakashi's new presence alongside them all. The chlorine stung her bandaged wounds as she thrashed around, so she stopped and stared, gasping at the lofty silver-haired ninja when she finally saw him.

“Come on, Kaori,” was all he said though in a harsh, biting and commanding tone that made her jump out of the pool without hesitation. Wringing her hair out and jogging off to keep up with him, she gave a forlorn look to Naruto and met Sakura's displeased but worried eyes.

“Ugh, how'd you even find us?” she growled once they were out of earshot. He only stared down at her critically with his solitary gray eye. She was a dripping, soaked mess.

“I followed the villager's screams.”

She waited outside his apartment before he came back with two towels, one he threw over her head, and the other she wrapped up in. She couldn't say much in retaliation to her actions. After all, day one, and she had already broken the first rule.


	11. X: Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _By the light of the moon she rubs her eyes, sits down on the bed and starts to cry,  
and there's something less about her. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do . . .”_   
—Rob Thomas (“Her Diamonds”) 

A week later of the same mundane routine of staying indoors while the jounin went about his daily business and affairs and Kaori was dying for just a taste of the early summer heat that Konoha had to offer. Sakura had come to re-bandage and heal her wounds until they were reduced to nothing but plain, scarless flesh once more. Naruto stayed away from her, much to Kaori's dismay, after she assumed Kakashi had scolded him for helping her go against his rules.

On Thursday, the fifth day she was in his apartment, she asked him, “Why is your hair white?”

“I was born with it.”

“So, you were born old?”

“Yeah, like how you were born stupid, right?” he responded with his genuine fake smile.

She missed Doc but hadn't cried for him since her first night in Konoha and hadn't once pined for returning to the dangerous small village they once resided. It was a Sunday night turned into a Monday morning, and she lay silently on the window seat.

Thoughts of the fact that she might be suffering from acute or transient insomnia began to fill her mind. However, Kaori hadn’t been doing anything to the point of actually not being able to sleep—plus, to note, this was perhaps the first night in forever that she had suffered from slight insomnia. It was so horrible, in fact, that she realized . . .

 _Hatake-san’s already asleep, and before me._ But upon glancing at the clock, she realized that it was actually well onto two in the morning. She’d gone to bed in hopes of falling asleep about three hours earlier. However, it seemed as if it were days since then—time passed slowly when your mind was wracked with doubt, worry . . . and fear.

But the daughter of the Raikage was uncertain of this fear she was experiencing . . . Fear of being finally caught and actually killed this time? She had come so close in the past—they could nab her at any given moment. They could be outside the window, two inches from where she slept, eyes wide at the moment with paranoia. The curtain was drawn, draped over the entire surface of the glass; it was relatively chilly out for her back was cold against the glass of the window pane.

It didn’t assuage her fears thinking that her predators could be outside the window, lurking in the night air and ready to strike and kill her at any second. Strike and kill like they were going to do her father, like they did her mother. And like they made Kira do to Doc.

 _What the hell is going on with me?_ she thought to herself, hand to her head as it pounded and resonated with frightening and sinking feelings. Finally under the decision, the brunette quickly, a bit too quickly, sat up with blanket in tow and stumbled her way into the bathroom without being heard. Here, there would be no windows, and there _would_ be a door to keep predators out.

The carpet rug was soft under her bare feet—much more comfortable than the wood surface she slept on by the window on the sill with just a mere pillow and blanket to drape over her body while she slept.

Paranoia beginning to waver, her restless mind panned to the obvious following depressing matter: death. Surely like her, Sakura, Naruto, Hatake-san and the majority of every ninja in this village probably knew the feeling of a kunai splitting into their flesh and cutting them. Is that how death felt before you forgot it all and seriously died? Is that what her father felt when he did it to himself? What the doctor felt when Kira went after him since he refused to give her up?

This couldn’t be happening.

By now, she had found herself staring at the base of the bathroom counter, staring into the darkness and stillness of the smaller room of the apartment. She lay in a fetal position, cringing and shaking. Was this what loneliness actually felt like?

Everyone was gone. There was nothing anymore. Though she was closest with Naruto, she barely felt like she knew him, and Sai, and Sakura . . . Kakashi was only putting up with her for the reason that he was mandated to do so. Family? That was gone. And what appeared to be family—Doc . . . he had to be killed and had to leave her to a village she was unaccustomed to.

Kaori knew that eventually they would seek her again. To call her an accomplice in Morio's murder . . . that seemed low but correct in her head. It’s exactly what she was. Unaware of it, but a murderer all the same. She hadn’t done anything to stop it or get him out of danger sooner. And now it was too late. There was no where to turn anymore.

Previously unaware of the fact that she was now softly crying, she bit her lip to control any noises that might give away her position as if she were low in hiding in the woods, underneath the brush, ready to be captured by the enemy at any given moment. In all honesty, she didn’t wish for Kakashi to wake to another problem on his hands.

But this was far more than a problem. Kakashi was only keeping her for the reason that the Hokage of the village commanded him to keep eyes on her for the time being. Eventually, she’d be a nomad again, moving on to somewhere else to escape and avoid danger. And just when she had started to grow towards the idea of being with Kakashi Hatake for a while . . . He still detested her, even now when she actually needed him. Did loneliness have to be so excruciatingly painful?

She knew he didn’t care for her. She was just another burden on his list, just another mission to uphold but this time in the home, and it was probably one of his more difficult missions to deal with and handle. Perhaps she wasn’t the golden child that every guardian had hoped for, and he hadn’t asked for her either, regardless. Didn’t want her. So, she reasoned silently to herself that rebelling might not be the best answer as she had been doing for the past week . . . not if she wanted at least one person in the world to have a care for her. Apparently loneliness and caring both hurt the exact same way, she had learned.

Kaori rose to her feet, head a bit of a mushy mess and her nose congested with the feeling of sobbing clogging up her head. Her eyes were so dry she could feel the redness and itchiness that came along with it. She felt the puffiness of her eyelids where they continued to produce tears and the sting of the saline that continued to well in the ducts of her eyes and spill down her flushed cheeks. She sniffed back anymore biting tears that meant to make their way out and ended up choking and coughing them back out in a broken sob.

Three steps from the bathroom rug and she was leaned against the doorpost of the bathroom door, head resting to keep the ten pounds that it supposedly weighed (though at the given moment it felt at least like a ton) upright. She tightly held the fleece blanket in her left hand, fingers clutched around it as if it were the last friend in the world at the moment. His back was turned . . . and he was still asleep.

Kaori would just have to apologize for waking him up. She barely choked out the his name which was accompanied with a few well-heard sniffs and painfully stinging blinks, unfortunately for her, producing more tears. Her knees might have been clasped together, but the lower half of her legs from the knees down were pointed outward as if she were confused, in a predicament, and just a scared and lonely little child. 

Ironically, that’s exactly what she was at the moment.

Kakashi's eyes opened slowly, his lids sprinkled with the dust of sleep, and his expression that of a tired old man. Her voice was wavering and mixed with the chokes and sobs of a teenage girl. It was too late for this, or maybe it was too early, he wasn't sure. What he was sure of, however, was that this was not a good hour to be awakened by the sound of a crying girl. Slowly pulling up his mask, he leaned out of bed at a snail’s pace looking over at the windowsill, expecting a small figure against the moonlight, but it wasn't there.

Now more alert and awake, his senses put together the direction of the sound and the lack of a girl. Turning around in bed, he saw her tucked against the alcove of the door, leaning her weight against it. Her frame was that of a rag doll, limp against the stern and unmoving wood, her cheeks glistening with the tears from her eyes and those eyes practically swollen shut. Kakashi sighed, and wondered who wronged her this time, or what he did to make her so upset. Tilting his head to one side, he sat up, pushing the covers to one side. “Don't you know you're not supposed to wake others just because you can't sleep?”

Had she the stamina to tell him off right then and there for his lack of concern, she would have. But it wasn't as if she expected anything more or less from him—in fact, that response was practically dead on. What did she want him to do? Delight her with treasures in hopes that it would make her feel better?

She seriously didn't know what to think, do or say at the moment—the latter nearly impossible with her nose subconsciously sniffing on its own to get rid of those damned tears that persistently wished to squeeze her eyes dry. She should speak had she had the words to say . . . maybe speak her thoughts, as _horrible_ as it might seem.

"Why do people die?" she managed to get out, hoping to muster a stronger and more dignified voice underneath that veil of hopeless sadness. That was a failure; her voice ended up squeaking in a nearly inaudible manner instead as if she were thoroughly disgusted with something yet wholeheartedly distraught at the same time.

It was uncanny for her even to be able to stand that long with her head feeling that heavy and with her knees held together in that manner. The doorframe was the only support, it seemed, until her knees decided to slowly buckle and she subconsciously made the decision to slowly sit down in the doorway of the bathroom. Now foolishly feeling like a child over the stupid being afraid of everything, death of all things—something she should have been accustomed to, she threw the fleece cover over her head as if it were some sort of protective shade to keep her idiot nature from seeping out any further. Her knees became the new tissue for her wet eyes and an odd sort of pillow for her heavy head.

Kakashi's demeanor changed in that instant. He didn't know the particulars of why she was upset, but he could damn well guess. He motioned for her in a few calling motions of his hand, as lazy and tired as he was. “Alright, come over here.”

She hesitated and instead merely shook her head quickly underneath the fleece covering about her body, refusing to come near him. “No . . .” Maybe it was the continuous paranoia that stayed with her or perhaps it was just the fear of being made a fool. While he was so calm and composed, she was here crying uncontrollably, and for what? Confusion continued to wrack her mind.

“Kaori, _come here_ ,” he said a bit more sternly and more demanding to the mess of a girl. Though slowly, she obliged with shaky assurance that he might be the one to help her through this mess—just maybe.

And as she approached his side and found her new seat on the much more comfortable bed, he proceeded to simply yank off the blanket of fleece that secluded her body. He saw down to her level, looked into her face and could tell she was legitimately miserable. “Now. People die . . .” he started. “Because . . .” He didn't know what to say; there was no good reason he could give her. He had a sense of familiarity with what she was going through. He had gone through the same losses in his life. It was difficult to accept when he was her age; it was difficult to accept even now.

After a long pause, he looked into her eyes again, and tried to explain. “Listen, I've gone through loss as well,” he said quietly. “It doesn't go away, but it gets better with time.” Kakashi sighed and watched her with mismatched eyes. Kurenai's advice nagged at him in the back of his mind, and tried to put her voice out of mind, quickly failing. “For someone who 'hates talking about their past,' I can't believe I'm asking you this, but do you want to talk about it?”

 _Yes . . ._ she thought almost immediately. But the stubbornness that thrived inside her made her rebel even in this situation and try to stand strong and be without the aid that she so desperately needed at the moment. Her mouth turned into an even more saddened frown while the tears continued to come which she quickly and fiercely wiped away with the back of her pajama’s sleeve. “No,” she managed in a shaky yet determined voice despite her truthful thoughts. Her head shook side to side vigorously in protest.

“Certain about that?” The tone of his voice had no raised intonation, so it was almost as if he spoke it as a statement.

She wouldn’t be subject to being treated like a child. “I said, ' _No,_ '” she managed to choke out once more, rolling her eyes away to avoid that penetrating glance.

Silence ensued for a few moments more, and finally the copy ninja sighed into the darkness of the room, face turned from her. “It's my fault we couldn't keep Morio alive,” he stated firmly yet softly. “. . . I should have noticed Kira's words were a diversion from the start. I was blind.”

Kaori could only stare, and all at once she gaped, those eyes that were wide at his initial words swelling up with hot, stinging tears. He was a liar; she was the real one to blame. And she suddenly realized that . . . 

She had _no one_ else to turn to.

Her heart felt like it was going to slam itself out of her chest and break into a million pieces on the floor. She did something she only did with her precious doctor and threw herself at Kakashi's neck.

Her arms wrapped around the back of his shoulders, and she sobbed against the fabric of his skintight undershirt in the crook of his neck. The jounin was really at a complete loss for words and actions and merely just acted on impulse with laying a hand softly against her back. “O–Okay now—” he started out lowly, still taken aback.

“I killed him. He took me in out of his own guilt, and I was so selfish. And he did everything for me. And I took it all for granted. And he tried to keep me alive, and now he's dead because of me. Like Mama. _Why_ did they all have to go?”

Her voice was impossibly high-pitched and cracking, and his eyes were set narrow, breathing even while he held her. He was unaware of the fact that he was slowly rocking her while she went on and on about everything she had never told anyone for years and years until now. “You didn't kill him,” he said lowly. “If that's true, then I killed those around me that died to save me. You can't have this guilt, and you can't blame yourself. It ruins you if you don't cope with it.”

Her breathing reduced to normal, and she finally stopped crying after several more minutes. His hands continued sweeping up and down her back until she finally realized she was calm and normal save for the continued sniffing. She looked up at him when his slumped posture straightened up.

He had just thought of it. “You like music?” he asked with almost no intonation in his voice recalling the first morning they had been back in the doctor's house and she had blared the stereo in her room to astronomic proportions.

Kaori drew back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Yeah, I guess,” she asked, brows lowered over her eyes in confusion and wondering what he was starting at. He was so aloof sometimes, she thought, scratching her head and tucking the hair behind her ears as he rose from the bed and made a short trek over to his sliding closet doors.

He knelt down on the floor, shuffling behind boxes sitting on the floorboards near the back corner before coming out with two, one on top of the other.

“Sit,” he told her, taking a seat on the floor beside the bed. Unsure, she slid down off the bed to sit adjacent to her previous seat on the wooden floorboards. The two boxes were between them, covered in dust, and she could only cough when he brushed them off. Opening the first one, he revealed a series of tightly packed plastic cassettes, each with a different pattern and foreign writing on the side of them. “You're too young to know what music was on in its more primitive forms, I'm sure,” he started.

“I've seen a cassette tape before,” she huffed in retaliation. “And yeah, they are primitive.” She sniffed back more tears while he examined each one in the dark. He glowered at her briefly before pulling one out and handing them to her as he examined each one in the darkness.

He watched as she rose a brow at him, not knowing what to do with the eight or so cassette tapes she held in her hands. “. . . Collecting these was a hobby of mine years ago,” Kakashi tried to explain. “Someone gave me the player and a few tapes so I started—oh!”

The intonation in his voice hadn't changed at all as he broke his train of thought, but he pushed the box aside that he had been fumbling through and went to the second one. Kaori almost forgot all about the crying she had done and gave him an odd glare as he unpackaged the second one and revealed a huge, boxy contraption. “It's a tape deck. Basically, it plays these. Sort of obsolete now, but it still does what it was meant to do.”

“Again, I know,” she repeated. “Not the first time I've ever seen one.” With another sniff, Kaori set all the tapes back in their box. “What're you saying, that I listen to it now to put me to sleep? Doesn't that defeat the whole idea of you sleeping?”

He shook his head, thinking how silly it was that he had suggested it in the middle of the night instead of in the morning. “Tomorrow's a better time, yes.”

“You know, if you're suggesting hobbies would get my mind off things, I like reading, too,” she continued, almost challenging his lack of perceptual skills. Sighing after he took in her words, he felt the blush creep over his masked face. That would have saved him a lot of embarrassment with bringing out an old hobby, he figured all moments too late. “Right,” he simply responded, voice half-cracking from the sudden dryness in his mouth.

“But you can't read my books,” he added, immediately remembering she was just shy of the age to be reading material of that nature. Regardless, like every other person, if she read it he was afraid she would find his taste in literature extremely indecent. After all, kids these days couldn't really appreciate masterful works that had an ingenious romantic vibe and dramatic plot.

“I can't or I'm not allowed to?” she challenged with a stuffy tone to her already rasped voice.

“Not allowed.”

“Because they're smut,” Kaori shot back immediately.

“Because you have that attitude about them.”

Dropping the subject completely, Kaori rolled her eyes and almost winced at the scratchy feeling of swollen eyelids brushing over now bone-dry eyes. Her defiant silence ended with another sniff and low exhale past her lips before she stared at him in the darkness again. “Thanks for . . . this. The music, the talking, all of it. I guess I didn't realize how bad I was with keeping things bottled up.”

With his eyes creased into a smile, Kakashi rose from his knelt position on the floor. Taking the two boxes up with him, he slid them easily one on top of the other onto the desk behind him. “We've all got our issues. Glad to know that my experience in life is good for something.”

Figures that he would be the one to console someone in her situation. If anyone at all was qualified to speak about the reasons and effects of loss, it was him.

Irony struck an odd chord, however.

All he knew was how to bottle it up.


	12. XI: Credit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand why my heart is so broken.”_  
—Trading Yesterday (“Shattered”)

Since that night, all Kakashi of the Sharingan could think of was the state he had been in when he was in her shoes. After Obito. After Minato. After Rin. “So, Kurenai told me something last week . . . that you were _actually_ keeping up with a girl at your place, Kakashi. I thought they were just rumors,” Gai badgered as Kakashi reclined on the sofa in the lounge. “You look _terrible_.”

“I appreciate your sentiments, Gai-kun. Really, thanks.”

Shaking his head, the muscled man in green tights, Maito Gai, ignored his sarcasm and sat beside his rival who continued to read his book. “Well, she can't be much more trouble than Sakura or Tenten or . . .”

When his steel gray eye veered from the page he was on to penetrate him instead, Gai quit while he was ahead. “Tsunade's really got it out for you, eh?”

Giving into the fact he wasn't going to be able to read his book in solace while Gai was around, Kakashi firmly shut it, turning his full attention to the green-garbed man next to him. “Originally, I said the same thing. It's not all that bad.” Did he really just say that? Though his mind was on an entirely different planet for an entire week, Kaori's demeanor had changed completely. To say he had cracked her open was almost giving himself too much credit—in reality, she had initially come to him and kept coming around. She trusted him now, more so than she had after he cornered her about her past.

“So, why does it look like you've lost enough sleep for Tsunade to throw you back into the hospital?” Gai taunted, actually elbowing the slender ninja in the ribs. Wincing, Kakashi rose to a stand, thumping Gai heavily on the head with his book. With a light frown, the swarthy man sighed, dropping his antics altogether. “We both know that you only look like this when Obito and the others are on your mind. When was the last time you visited the memorial?”

Hesitant to answer, the silver-haired jounin massaged the back of his head with his free hand. “I haven't had the chance since we've been back, and we were gone nearly a month.”

Gai grinned, taking another final swipe at nagging him. “And I know for a fact you didn't go two months before that. Did you forget where it was in nearly four months' time?” Kakashi sighed while he laughed it up, pocketing his book and shoving his hands into his pockets.

“ _Go_ , Kakashi,” he went on, urging him. “Pay your respects like you always did. Madara is dead; Obito is _really_ gone this time. God knows after all that you've been through and have ahead of you, you need to clear your head.” Silently, Kakashi gave a stiff nod of his head before trekking across the room to the door. “S-ranks have taken on a whole new meaning. I'll be damned if I take another one from Tsunade without inquiring for details first!” Gai called from the sofa still.

“ _Goodbye_ , Gai,” Kakashi retorted, actually suppressing a smile.

••••••••••

Obito plagued his mind. It wasn't his spirit that he had brought down when Team Kakashi fought Sasuke and Madara Uchiha. Madara had merely stolen his body, had used Orochimaru's methods of using bodies of the deceased to prolong physical youthfulness. It was sickening to have the somewhat aged body of his former teammate fighting against him, but it was murder on himself to see the light leave his eyes for a second time. As much as he had continued to tell himself that only Madara resided in the shell of Obito, the notion of coping with death that Kaori had brought up was letting the memories of nearly a year's prior events consume him. Visiting the memorial was almost like taboo now—he had spent quality time consulting with Obito's spirit while his body was wrongfully still walking the earth.

Mulling over Gai's words the entire night instead of sleeping, he decided the next morning he would make the journey to the memorial. Fully garbed, the jounin avoided breakfast altogether. It wasn't as if Kaori had seen him eat anyway—he was far too slick with downing things in the blink of an eye for _anyone_ to notice. He gave her a small wave, next to the door with his keys in hand. “I'll be back later,” he spoke softly. She blinked, stopped what she was doing and whirled around to watch as he opened the door. “Will you clean up the bathroom while I'm out?”

“W–wait, I don't need to come with you?” she inquired, finding it odd that she wasn't going to be accompanying him for the first time in a couple of weeks.

“Just a few errands to run,” Kakashi informed nonchalantly. “Boring. Stuff you wouldn't want to tag along for. If you get hungry, there's leftovers in the fridge.”

“You're not going to _eat_?” Kaori asked, concerned. “You didn't eat last night either.”

He shut and locked the door behind him before she could get another word out.

••••••••••

Heart heavy and stomach churning, Kakashi glanced at the black marble. Its glossy surface mirrored his stricken visage, his only visible eye laden with depression. “You know it's hard for me to keep coming here,” the copy ninja spoke quietly into the overcast air. The grayed skies mimicked his soul perfectly. Clouded, pent-up and on the verge of release. “I can only hope you're still there too, Rin. And Sensei.”

Kurenai was right—Rin's body hadn't been used as Obito's had, however, while he never thought that Obito's body would be used in Orochimaru's methods, it had still happened. Tsunade had even said herself that Kaori resembled the late Raikage. Her resemblance to Rin was just such a coincidence that he couldn't bear to let it go. 

Silently, he mulled over his feelings for the girl. Unconditionally, she had loved him, but he could never reciprocate it. “I couldn't love her because of you, Obito,” he whispered. “I would have been cheating you—you died loving her.” Rin had always belonged to him.

He was there for an hour at least, forgetting the time completely as was usually his signature custom. The skies remained shadowy and refused to open up in sun or rain. His legs didn't tire in the least from standing with an absent-minded stare at the marble structure before him. “Kakashi-senpai, not wasting the day away, are we?” an inquiring male voice spoke up behind him.

His eye widened before he whirled around to catch a softly smiling Yamato with a hand raised in respectful greeting. “Tenzou—didn't know you were here.”

The ANBU's face turned downright exasperated within a matter of a second. “How many times do I have to ask you to call me—”

“Yamato, I know, I forget. Sorry.”

Shrugging it off, the man with the chestnut-colored hair gave a reassuring smile with teeth at his mentor. “I haven't seen you around as much. Still coming around here like always?”

Kakashi turned his attention from the memorial to his pupil, sighing before he spoke. “Less and less, it seems. It's harder for me now. I know it sounds ridiculous granted it's been over fifteen years to begin with and almost a year on top of that, but that doesn't change the fact that I think about it every day. I couldn't sleep last night.”

His smile turned into a frown at the mention of his unrest, then Yamato picked up on the irritated redness of his eyes, confirming signs of no sleep. He only wondered if the blame was with the S-rank mission that Tsunade had confirmed after rumor said it. Curiosity getting the better of him, he merely spoke his mind. “Tsunade-sama told me about your mission. I couldn't believe my ears,” Yamato laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “I know how difficult it is to put up with Naruto at nights. Can't imagine how you're dealing with a teenaged girl! How long is this for?”

Realizing that most conversations with his colleagues would entail this subject at some point, Kakashi stared back at him with a solitary, weary eye, giving in to the discussion. “Indefinitely. Until we deal with this enemy, I suppose.”

“Any information on them?” Yamato inquired, not hesitant to help.

The silver-haired ninja shook his head. “We've taken down some of the smaller threats. Kaori made sure of that.”

“Kaori?”

Kakashi rolled his eye at his own stupidity for not specifying. “The girl.”

“Oh, so she's got fight in her, hmm?” Yamato asked with a smile.

Kakashi laughed mockingly, “She's a lot like you are, actually.” A puzzled look washed over Yamato's face as he blankly waited for some sort of explanation. “She's a storm user,” Kakashi went on to say. “I've seen it firsthand.”

“I'd love to see it, too,” Yamato admitted with an excited tone. “She's just a girl?”

“Twenty soon,” Kakashi informed, wondering if his former student was actually entertaining the thought of hooking up with her. “Looking for a wife?”

Blushing, Yamato turned his gaze away from him. “What are you talking about, senpai? I was just _asking_.”

Catching up, the two men took their conversation away from the memorial, but it didn't take away from the fact that Kakashi's mind was still buried in the dark depths of borderline severe depression.

••••••••••

A misty rain had just begun to finally pour out of the sky.

Curled up on the window seat, Kaori had buried her nose for the day in a particular volume of Icha Icha Paradise she had already read since she had been here, but it was full of scenes that were . . . well, highly romantic, overly passionate, and extremely heated so reading it again was nothing short of enjoyable. Kakashi had forbidden her from reading his adult novels though she couldn't see why. Nothing was adult about it aside from heavy language and descriptive love-making scenes. Did he really read this in public all the time?

The jounin just had to let himself in at that moment causing the girl to leap up from the window seat, close the book and lay it back where she found it in about two seconds time. “Hey—!” However, a downcast gaze towards the floor and a nonchalant mien as he shut the door behind him told her that he probably wouldn’t have cared. There weren’t two sides to the man. There were three—either exotically happy, overly infuriated, or right in the middle of the two. The latter was his current mood, but upon tracing the only single eye that was visible, she saw he appeared more distraught than completely lackadaisical about everything.

“I, uh, cleaned the bathroom like you asked,” she stated shakily and apprehensively while he continued to ignore her, avoid her gaze, and focus on the bed that was now two paces in front of him. And, naturally, he chose to simply sit upon it and sulk in an even lazier stance than he normally did, something completely new and foreign to Kaori. Her mouth gaped slightly, but her eyebrows rose in some sympathy.

 _He looks like a train wreck . . ._ she thought hopelessly to herself. _Even worse than this morning._ Ninja were supposed to conceal their emotions, right? It was as if he didn’t acknowledge her being here, so he could be as sad and lonely as he wanted to be behind closed doors. “Um . . . Hatake-san?” she managed shakily once again, trying to see towards his face which was impossible as it was tilted down and hidden by two heavy hands.

He only gave her a suggestion which didn’t really surprise her much. “Why don't you get some lunch, Kaori?” It really sounded more like an order.

It only caused her to frown, however she did look behind her at the refrigerator, then back towards him more forlornly. She took the chance that he might try to hit her for touching him, but then again, Kakashi wasn’t the type who would hit a woman. Still, she reached back around his head, took the knot of the headband which was tied tightly at the back of her head and began to loosen it gently. He didn’t instinctively jerk back, but his eyes did open widely in realization at the feeling of her fingers working around his hair to undo the knot to his headband. Only then did he slowly tilt his head up to stare at her a bit perplexed and bewildered at her actions, but she avoided his mismatched eyes.

She managed to finally loosen the job he had done to get it tied snugly around his head and slid the headband from his forehead and laid it softly on the bed beside him as his hands dropped from his face to between his legs limply as if he could do no more but to just stare and wonder. “. . . I don’t know why your emotions are all over the place. Or why you're feeling how you're feeling,” she began quietly before running a few of her fingers through his very soft and thick silver hair. “But you're kind of freaking me out.”

He’d like to say he agreed that his own emotions threw him for a loop, but something so small as that coming from a girl that was practically forced upon him wasn’t going to make him immediately cave to her speech. Still, he took the words to heart for a moment, kept them there, and then thought while closing his eyes at the feeling of her fingers working their way through his pale silver locks. He was on the verge of completely losing his sense of judgment because if he were completely alright he would totally prevent her from letting the back of her fingers stroke his cheek until she hesitantly slid his mask down to his chin.

Kaori could have sworn she heard him gasp, but her gaze was only upon the ceiling at the moment, so he really had nothing to fear. Both now visible mismatched eyes opened even wider to the fact that his face was being revealed around someone else. Only when he rose a hand to grab her wrist and glare sternly and pleadingly at her did he realize she was turned away, not looking at him, and she had brought the bunched up material to rest underneath his chin and about his neck as a turtleneck garment.

“I know I’m young . . . and you consider me a kid still,” she paused in the middle of her soft speech. “But I'm just not something you have to look after. You helped me, after all. Why shouldn't I be able to help you?” She was beginning to ramble and knew it, but she didn't care. “Remember you told me how you've gone through loss? If I brought up some bad memories and that's what this is about . . . just know that I still hurt, too, you know? And don’t think for a second that I’m not someone and that you can go about your whole miserable day being—well— _miserable_ and _lonely_. Cause then you forget about me, and I feel really awkward. And even more importantly because you really _aren’t_ alone, Hatake-san . . .”

It would be so awkward and odd to give him, of all people, a hug, especially when he was more than likely if not obviously unwilling to return it at this moment. Somehow, she got around the sheer discomfort of the situation and wrapped both arms around his head and pulled him closer to her chest. Hugging just his head was, yeah, strange, but better some consolation than none at all she figured.

But now he felt extremely bizarre . . . and his eyes stung for some strange reason. Here she was, standing between his slightly parted legs, his head held gently against her chest and her face buried in his hair. . . . What to say about that? She was so innocent, standing there in her sock feet, pajama pants from the night before and an over-sized shirt, five feet and five inches tall, holding a fully grown man in consolation and solace.

He dwelled on Kurenai's “magic” comment and how absurd it was, yet . . . she was too much like Rin in this moment with the sweetness and serenity. However, the forwardness and lack of timidness reminded him that it was actually Kaori. He heaved a long sigh against the fabric of her shirt. Was it so wrong to not want to be lonely? Or was it wrong only when he wasn't lonely because he enjoyed a nineteen year old girl holding him like this? He wouldn’t answer it— _couldn’t_ actually—because even he didn’t have an answer for enjoying such things.

Maybe her words were true—he really didn’t have to feel so alone because he wasn’t. In fact, he now realized, she was more of a blessing than a hindrance, and until now he hadn’t given her the full credit she deserved.

Pulling his mask up over the bridge of his nose again, he pulled away from her and stared into the face that was actually avoiding his gaze. “So many are gone.” Instantaneously, she grabbed his hand, fighting to look away from him. His gloved hand squeezed hers, tightly crushing her fingers together.

“I know.”

Biting her lip, she bent down, kneeling in front of him with both of her hands over his on his knee. “It doesn't go away, but it gets better with time,” Kaori reminded him, using his own advice on him.

His eye went from her to the exposed window. The rain was soft enough not to be a nuisance but loud enough to be soothing. “The skies finally gave way,” he admitted plainly, playing with the subject being discussed.

Kaori humored him, her gaze now also on scenery past the pane of glass. She whispered in her raspy voice with a smile, “Sometimes rain is a good thing.”


	13. XII: Conspiracy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _Every little thing she does is magic, everything she do just turns me on.”_  
—The Police (“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”)

Kakashi of the Sharingan was playing house. Mock-father to a girl, his mission and status had spread throughout the shinobi of the village. Even the women at the laundromat he visited every Tuesday had learned of his status. Kaori had followed him one afternoon, embarrassing him when she threw an extra sack of her clothes at him to get cleaned. The week he came back they wouldn't let up about it.

“She seems like a sweet girl,” one of the regular Tuesday women told him. Her hair was red and frizzled as she had dyed way too much in her younger days. The long drag she took on the cigarette resulted in blue ghosts of smoke billowing out her nose and mouth. “Kakashi-kun, you're not as lonely as you've been before, are you? Although, we didn't have in mind that you would be a father-figure before you actually settled down and got yourself a wife.”

As he laughed, chagrin, his voice cracked off into a distressed groan. He was far too young to even be a father to her. If anything in terms of relations, he was an older brother considering her age. The chanting taunts and wishes the women from the laundromat had for his life were all pure, however.

Folding the clothes that had just come out of his dryer, Kakashi watched as another woman with deep blue hair who had been tucked behind the counter sauntered across the small room of washers and dryers, waiting by one that read it had three minutes left on the rinse cycle. “He's still just a kid,” she growled at the red-head with a gruff smoker's voice. “Let 'im off the hook. He's got a few more years ta go before we marry 'im ourselves and share 'im. Ain't that right, Kakashi-kun?”

“I suppose I should seriously start looking then,” Kakashi humored them, rolling his eyes to the ceiling at the thought of spending the rest of his days married with the old maids of the laundromat. He would make sure that he would only still see them once a week.

“Hey, do you need help folding?” another throaty voice asked from the cracked door. This time it was from a much younger girl, and Kakashi actually felt relieved when he heard her speak. Some safety and solace from the awkward air in the small area. Her brown hair made an entrance before her, swishing forward and then back over her shoulders like a pendulum as she crept into the laundromat, smiling lightly at the women who keenly watched her arrival.

“Following me again?” the silver-haired man asked under his breath as she sheepishly took one of her own shirts from the dryer. “I can handle it on my own.”

“And _I'm_ a legal adult this year, fully capable of doing my own laundry. You're not my mother,” she murmured between her teeth, mocking his character. Swiftly, she folded the shirt about twice as fast as he would have been able to do and moved onto the next article of clothing. It was still warm and smelled like waking up from a good night's sleep.

The frazzled red-head took another drag of her cigarette and tapped the residue into the makeshift clay ash tray on the counter. “How long have you been growing that hair, dear?” she inquired in a deep drawl. Kaori whirled around to catch a glimpse of her exhaling the smoke while she still folded the next shirt with nimble fingers.

“Three years,” the brunette replied over her shoulder. “Since I was sixteen.” No one had really commented on her hair until it grew so long. Otherwise it was just an ordinary color, completely void of anyone's flattering remarks. The woman almost looked surprised.

“You're _how old_?” she rasped again, taking another drag and finishing off the cigarette altogether.

Blinking, Kaori made a confused face. “Nineteen,” she answered, but the raised intonation in her voice sounded as if she were responding with a question.

“Fantastic,” she stated to the other lady, no longer talking to Kaori. “I've got to start growing my hair out then. It'll take at least a good five years off by the looks of her, wouldn't you say?”

“Ya'd be lucky if that hair of yours grows out anymore. You're growing bald spots instead,” the other woman with dark blue hair teased. Kaori figured she had audacity to speak at all considering the fact her hair was graced with several strands of bright silver.

They argued while Kaori turned her attention back to the last shirt in the dryer, tempted to say something on the subject. Kakashi glared at her when she took the woman's response, waiting for her words as if he knew she would be asking any moment now. “Does my hair make me look younger?” she inquired, practically eating out of the palm of his hand.

“You're fine,” he merely responded, packing down the clothes with his hand into the basket. He sighed heavily as he reviewed their logic. “Their sense of time and age is warped. They think I'm old enough to be your father.”

_Again, the mystery of his age_ , Kaori thought. Her eyes looked at the silver hair on his head and wondered. It was naturally colored like that, that much he had told her himself. Still, she wasn't about to flat out ask him. “You're . . . _not_ old enough?” she asked only a moment too late.

“Be back next week,” Kakashi raised his voice to talk over them them with a smile from his eyes. He rose a hand to his head in a parting wave, grabbing the basket in the other hand. “Take care.”

As Kaori held the door open so he could walk out in front of her, the blue-haired woman stopped in the middle of her argument to acknowledge their leave. “Kakashi-kun, ya better find that woman before next week. Ya know what ya've got waitin' for ya if ya don't!”

A smile tugged at the corners of Kaori's lips. “Woman? What _woman?_ ” Kaori practically teased, her mind reeling with curiosity.

“It's nothing,” he sighed behind his mask with humiliation in his voice. “Their sense of age is bad, like I said.”

Kaori's question wasn't answered even when they made it back up the few flights of stairs to the apartment door. She fished, “You're not old enough to be my father, yet you're too old to find a woman?”

Fumbling in his pocket for the key to the door she had locked when she snuck out, Kakashi put the basket in her arms. Kaori could have sworn she saw a smirk over his lips beneath his mask. “Yeah,” was all he said, too chipper for her to believe him.

Kaori rolled her eyes. __

••••••••••

Running errands was something Kakashi was doing more frequently now it seemed. Perhaps the fact he hadn't actually been out on one mission over the course of over six months made it appear as if he had too much homely business to attend to. Grocery shopping was obviously more prevalent since two consumers in the house meant goods went out faster. Even for supplying Kaori as an S-rank mission, the  ryō was more than enough to meet her and his needs together, but he wasn't about to voice that.

He didn't take her to the store after the first time. Wandering with her down the feminine aisle as she threw at least three boxes of tampons and napkins was mortifying enough especially since she had insisted on dragging him. “Next time, just tell me which ones you need, and you stay back at the apartment,” Kakashi had muttered lowly with a huge flush beneath his mask. Angered by the comment, Kaori had managed to make a scene for the entire store to hear at the checkout line of how she wasn't a child and had needs to be met.

His errand at the present time was a simple check-in with Tsunade for the S-rank, a customary that took place once every week. Most of the time it was letting Shizune know that things were normal, nothing out-of-the-ordinary. 

Aside from the occasional small argument that spawned at least every day or two, the copy ninja had actually grown used to her company. It would have been a lie to say she wasn't amusing. Never had he watched someone get so frustrated over the tiniest of things except for Naruto. She was a time bomb that reset every so often, and he could never tell when she was going to explode next. Her tongue could be whole-hearted and joking one minute and then biting and haughty the next. That mouth of hers was going to get her into trouble one day, but luckily for her, he had adapted a heavy patience that made her seem rather tolerable.

His music actually helped put her in a happier state. The cassettes and tape player were actually being put to daily use after he swore he would probably never see them resurface from the depths of his closet. She was particularly fond of ELO, Hall and Oates, and The Police, and surprisingly hadn't picked up ABBA like he figured she would. Then again, sometimes he forgot her feminine streak was few and far between if not non-existent compared to Sakura's. Not that ABBA was feminine, per se. He enjoyed ABBA very much, actually.

A song was playing behind his door. Fishing the key out from his pocket, he knew the melody easily. The singer's voice easily confirmed it. The first sight Kakashi saw when he unlocked and opened the door was a swirling brown curtain of hair twisting around to reveal bright green eyes and an equally flashy white grin.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked with fierce teasing intentions as he smiled at her. When she continued dancing and hopping along to the music, he figured she wasn't going to play into his game of goading. She was certainly a free spirit, he figured. Anyone's opinions of her didn't bother her in the slightest.

“It's such a great song,” she commented as she shifted her bare feet across the floor, spinning around him in a circle. “I might have replayed it about ten times already.”

“Pressing stop and rewinding?” he inquired, seemingly ignoring her as she twirled about him still. “You'll ruin my tapes if you hold down the rewind while it's still playing.”

“ _Relax_ , I've been doing it right,” Kaori assuaged. “ _Eee-oh-ohh, eee-oh-ohh_.” The copy ninja almost started laughing as he removed his headband, his hair falling down normally to sit evenly around his head. Continuing on, the girl hopped back and forth along either side of him as he padded across the room to put the headband on the dresser. He shed his vest off, cleanly unzipping it then coursed to the other side of the room, hanging it on the empty hanger alongside his other identical vests.

Finally he paid her some attention, staring down at her with his Sharingan eye closed. “Start it over,” he deadpanned dully, watching as her mild dancing declined to a final stop. She gave him an odd, half-smirking stare in return before she returned to the tape deck and flicked the stop button with her toe before the song's end.

After it rewound just to catch the end of the previous song, Kaori sported a full grin. With a click of the play button, she waited for the song she had just caught the tail end of to finish and the song they wanted to slowly begin.

The ticking of cymbals and light downbeat of the drum was accompanied by a muffled piano plinking away in the background. Low notes, higher, higher and higher still, then back down to the depths again. Perplexed, Kaori watched him curiously as he drummed his fingers in time against his leg before the singer's voice entered the picture.

His vocal cords hummed the melody for the first verse then finally opened up to sing in tune with the lead vocalist. _“Every little thing she does is magic,”_ Kakashi's voice sang out behind his mask. Even though his voice was fine and on pitch, she thought he was ridiculous. However, he obviously didn't seem to care whether or not if he was embarrassing himself.

And he honestly wasn't. Time and time again he had always mentioned the fact he would dance to pass the time or when he was happy, but his kids had shrugged it off on his aloof manner as a silly joke with no weight to it. Kaori was more or less the only one around the kids' age that had actually witnessed this phenomenon in its most extreme state. Gai's student Lee did not count as the three of them had been rather drunk at the time it happened, and he was sure neither of the two remembered what any of them had done that night.

Her idea of dancing was much milder than he had seen before. She had merely reduced herself to swaying instead of shuffling her feet and hopping around him. Surely she wasn't intimidated by his ability to move just as well, if not more. Snapping his fingers and jostling his arms were not so advanced motions that she would need to dumb down her own moveset.

Without warning as the chorus repeated for a second time, Kakashi snagged her hands with his gloved ones, tangling his fingers with hers and dragging her into his own dance steps. In the initial few moments, Kaori didn't know what to do except attempt to follow what he was doing. When his arms turned hers up, hands towards the ceiling, she spun easily underneath the arc their limbs created. He spun her back into his other arm, taking her hand again. His feet sidled in countenance to hers until she finally picked up on the pattern he was dancing to.

Laughing, Kaori still struggled to keep up even as the song began to reach its end. The only thing she was good at was twirling when he coaxed her into it. His quickness for the uptempo song was too much for her to keep up with, and here she had been, thinking she was at least well versed in dancing yet she had clearly been shown up by someone much lighter on his feet.

Dipping her down on the last note, Kakashi found resistance on the other side of his arm. The hand previously snaked around her shoulder rode up her neck as they unexpectedly crashed into the bed. It would have just appeared to be an embarrassing incident had he lowered her and just laid her there, but the fact of the matter was her upper limbs were locked completely around his neck. Therefore, he found his entire torso completely pressed over Kaori's instead while she lay supine on the mattress.

She was pinned, their limbs tangled. The heat of their bodies from the jumping, dancing and all-around exercising motions made the entire room feel hotter than it already was. Where he wasn't covering her, she felt more comfortable caresses of unbothered bedding and cooled air. Finally, Kaori gasped a hard breath. She wasn't sure whether or not he had knocked the wind out of her with that final move or if she was simply out of breath from prancing about the apartment. What Kaori did know is that it was an incredible feeling—never had she felt so wild and untamed before—almost _savage_. Dancing had been something she did, embarrassingly, behind closed doors when Doc wasn't watching. Kakashi had made it have a whole new meaning.

It was impossible to remember the last time she had laughed this hard. The fact that his hair was tickling her neck and face didn't make her laughing situation any better. Winded and gasping for a breath, Kaori only laughed harder granted the situation, stomach throbbing with the need to let her diaphragm have a rest.

Her winded laugh spiraled into his ears; her heavy breathing fell against his perspiring skin. In the momentary loss of control, all the copy ninja could do was laugh as well, finding the same issue with needing to regain full use of his lungs. Closing his eyes, his heart hammered against his ribs, against her body. Wagering he wasn't crushing her since she still breathed, he didn't move, and for a moment he didn't know why he just lay there. Though he sounded it, he was far from exhausted. Temporary loss of breath was nothing, yet Kakashi found himself still tangled with her.

His hand felt the back of her neck while she laughed, tresses of mussed mahogany hair twisted in his fingers. It felt like her body was heated to the same temperature as his. Even though her breath was hot and hard, the sensation of blown air against his skin and into his hair was still exhilarating.

Coming out of the fog, Kakashi finally froze. Every pulsing sensation he felt resonating from her body was driving him crazy.

What was _happening_ to him?

In his time, Kakashi had known just how to be a class-act flirt with women, and he had essentially just used that same charm on the young girl currently beneath him. It obviously had no different effect even though she was still technically not yet a woman by society's standards. He had driven her to this, and she _loved_ it.

What had he _done_?

Suddenly, his heart started beating even faster than before. Her laughter was too enticing, luring him to adopt a different side of him that he didn't know fully existed. Sweet and drizzly and slow and addicting like honey, and he _hated_ sweet things. The feeling of her fingers coursing through his hair, the sound of that laugh, the simple difference of her frailer, thinner form against his . . . Was it he who had driven her to this or just the opposite?

His carnal desires were completely taking over his judgment.

Kakashi was completely fascinated with her.

_“Maybe it's magic?”_ Kurenai's voice resounded in his head over and over. The repeated words made him sick. The song was nothing but instrumental as it faded into the next track, but he still heard the words. Every little thing she did was magic. Every little thing just turned him . . .

_Maybe._

Wide-eyed, both his mismatched eyes stared at her flushed neck. The violet of her smock was the same hue of the markings Rin sported over her cheeks. He imagined for a moment that the cascades of liquid brown hair about her face only went to her chin. But she couldn't be Rin . . . he _never_ felt this way about Rin.

_Maybe._

The copy ninja then realized at that moment he had basically admitted to the depths of his mind that he felt something for her.

The regained conscious part of his mind, however, was willing to deny it.

“That's enough, Kaori,” Kakashi practically growled, pushing himself away from her and off of his bed. Running a shaky and clammy hand through his silver locks, he avoided her puzzled gaze as her giggling subsided to nothing but heavy breathing. He felt as if he was going to be absolutely sick, his stomach churning with nausea.

A cheeky grin over her lips, she rolled off the bed and without hesitation went to rewind the song back to the beginning. “C'mon, let's go again, that was great. I _almost_ kept up with you towards the end.”

“ _No,_ Kaori,” he lashed out, his words biting and harsh. Confused, she had just pressed the stop button before the agitated ninja pushed the cassette player aside with his foot. It slid easily across the floor and enough out of her reach to the point that the power cord was yanked clean from the wall.

“You're going to break it—!”

“ _What are you playing at?!_ ” he hissed through clenched teeth under his mask. “You made me—!” Taking in his words before he said more, he held a fist to his mouth to control himself. He was irrationally blaming it on her. She _wasn't_ a seductress, she _wasn't_ a sorceress . . . but he _was_ certain he was entirely losing it.

Lost for words, she laughed shakily. “Made you _what?_ ” the girl inquired in a hesitant voice. His vicious stare frightened her into sitting back down on the floor. “C'mon, don't look at me like that. You're a _really_ good dancer, Hatake-san. I never would have guessed . . .”

Her words trailed off into the air as she noticed his motions. They were completely uncontrollable. Frustration and fear clouded Kakashi's consciousness, and all he could do was pace with heavy feet over the apartment floor. It hurt to breathe; it pained him to even _look_ at her. Behind his mask, he drew blood when he bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. His teeth were set hard in his mouth, jaw protruding in fury. It was all he could do to keep from shaking.

He needed a drink. There was beer in the fridge. But the dilemma was that as much as he needed a drink, he also needed to get away even more so.

Not even ten minutes before he had disrobed most of his gear, and now he was going to throw all of it back on. “There's leftovers in the fridge for dinner,” the copy ninja informed her, but his voice came out in a fierce bark. He pulled the vest off the hanger in his closet and thrust his arms through both openings on the sides.

Startled and abashed, Kaori watched as he slid the sandals onto his feet and grabbed the headband off the dresser. “Wait, what—”

The sound of the door slamming echoed for a solid minute.


	14. XIII: Accord

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _They don't know who I really am, and they don't know what I've been through like you do.”_  
—Brandi Carlile (“The Story”)

The contraption rolled along just fine. Despite the minor fact that there was rust breaking through the faded canary yellow paint job over the metal frame, the tires were far from needing more air and the brakes still worked perfectly. The steady constant clicks continued on as Kakashi padded alongside the rusted saffron bicycle, wheeling it around the back alleyway of the apartment. With a heavy, almost annoyed look in his eye, he turned his gaze to the curtain-covered window on the third floor.

Two nights prior had been just what he had intended when he left his pad in an infuriated rush. Kakashi had found his bar of choice, snagged the furthest corner seat at the bar in the corner and asked the bartender for three shots right off the bat. His tolerance for alcohol was rather high, and as he was somewhat of a regular in the bar, the bartender didn't object to his first request. He hadn't even asked the silver-haired ninja what the trouble was . . . Kakashi was unsure if he had concealed his severe discomfort well enough for the man not to know.

Regardless of what the bartender thought, the copy ninja had managed to clean out the ryō he had on him at the time in drinks alone and made it home in a somewhat tipsy state around one in the morning. His mission was curled up, asleep on the windowsill just like he wanted her to be as he clambered into bed himself without so much as a shower, shave, or brushing of his teeth.

He awoke five hours later to a stomachache from alcohol on an empty stomach but never felt the slightest bit of a headache like most people would have. Unfortunately, he considered that a bit of a problem . . . getting the pain in your system was part of getting the things out that you wanted to forget.

Kurenai was a witch in her own right. Did she have to be so crafty with her manner of speaking? Never in his life had he thought that a word would have so much weight to it. It was bewitching, and that was the irony of it. Obito hadn't really been gone, so who was to say that Rin wasn't really gone either? Kaori's age was the only thing that made him think it was ludicrous, however Madara had been generations older than Obito and still found a way into his body.

His train of thought wasn't rational, and he knew it. With a quick shower and very early morning routine, Kakashi was out the door by seven and at least an hour before his sleeping mission would still be awake. She could easily fend for herself for the entire day after he had spent countless days taking care of her. It was time he paid attention to his own deteriorating mind. While he believed that this train of thought had easily just receded into the back of his mind, clearly it plagued his subconscious more than his actual consciousness let on.

And so as dawn peeked in over the sky, he set out to find Kurenai with the full knowledge that he would find her at home with the baby. When he, oddly enough, found an empty apartment, he took a break and found breakfast before setting out for mission's headquarters and then the hospital. Both trips left him with no luck. Her disappearing act had him believing she was more of a sorceress than he thought to begin with.

Kakashi passed the same abandoned yellow bicycle around the back of the hospital that had been there since he and Naruto had been hospitalized after their final encounter with Madara and Sasuke. He was surprised he could still see it behind the overgrown bush that was creeping up the side of the wall. It was a tacky thing, and he was sure it had been abandoned solely on the rust and faded color. It was tacky, but for some reason he could only think more of Kaori when he saw it.

Like Rin, she was rather lovely. Though he had never been so vain as to go after a woman based on their looks, he did have a right to think a girl was nice-looking. Rin's beauty never affected him. If he felt anything towards her, it would have been due to her sweet demeanor, but even then he could never find the actual feelings in his heart for her that she had for him.

Kaori was equally stunning in her own right. Granted, she was far from the ideal woman that Jiraiya portrayed in the books he read day in and day out about. However, for a girl soon to be married off when she came of age by the end of the year, he was sure suitors would easily pine after her. Her thick brows were always knit in a peculiar manner even when she wasn't angry or thinking. He was completely unable to tell if she was actually well-endowed with breasts as her tops always seemed to be baggy enough to conceal each and every curve of her torso. Her thin limbs weren't scraggily enough to the point that she could easily be mistaken for a child . . . in fact, her legs were long and slender from what he had seen when she wore shorts. In heels, her legs would probably send the normal woman-loving man for a loop.

The bicycle was equally gorgeous but physically flawed all the same. He couldn't stand it, but at the same time he was mildly attracted to it.

Leaving the bicycle abandoned, Kakashi's motive for the day strayed from finding Kurenai to avoiding Kaori. Again, he reminded himself, she could easily fend for herself, and after the evening before, he wasn't exactly sure he could face her yet. Even when he did, how would he go about doing it? Pretend like nothing happened? Lying about it? He was actually quite good with using both cards.

Turning into his apartment just after midnight, he almost felt bad for leaving Kaori in the same state he had since the previous night. He wondered how much she had moved from the sill—if she had gone against his word and ventured out into the village or just strayed to the fridge, the bathroom, and back. Guilt plagued his mind as he turned into bed in nearly the same fashion he had the night before. Neglecting the mission was one thing even though he was sure the enemy wouldn't have come to call on today of all days, but leaving her with questions as he collected himself in a crude manner was another.

He felt bad for leaving the bicycle leaning between the back wall of the hospital building and the overgrown bush.

Kakashi would leave her to wake once more without him in the apartment, but it would be the last. It was only a matter of an hour or so before he retrieved the bicycle from the hospital and toted it back to the alleyway the window to his apartment overlooked.

Kaori had only been awake a solid hour, her hair still a bushy, unbrushed mess as she decided to fix breakfast first thing after brushing her teeth. _He must have just left me the damn place for myself_ , she thought angrily, cracking one of the few eggs left in the carton and whisking it harder than she needed to.

She was almost back to completely disliking him. He was cold, distant, and only ever seemed to tell her what to do. Where did she get the idea that they had actually begun to get along? More importantly, where did he get the idea that he could start treating her along the same lines he had when he had first been ordered to look after her? She was still the same person, and if _dancing_ of all things was something to send him completely over the edge, then he shouldn't have even given her the damn tapes and player to use anyway.

As if it were clockwork, she heard the doorknob jostle before the door opened completely, and there he was. She forgot all about the hot frying pan and left the conglomeration of raw egg yolks and whites in the mixing bowl on the table as she spun around to look at him directly. Only one thought registered in her mind in her anger.

_Corner him._

She could handle him lashing out at her again, but she doubted he would even try anything heavy against her, physical or not. Awkwardly, Kaori positioned herself in front of him as he closed the door. Hands cautiously held in front of her, she hoped it would keep him at bay there and that he wouldn't just retreat back outside.

“I need to talk to you . . .” she began slowly, green eyes shaking with uncertainty until he finally made eye contact with her. “Okay?”

Kakashi shrugged it off as if nothing had happened, his stare turning into a gaze of ridiculing curiosity as to why she was acting so hesitant. “Talk? Fine,” he humored her, hiding his hands in his pockets with hopes to get the worst out of the way quickly. His lazy gaze turned into one of curiosity when she slowly lowered her arms. A brow rose just beneath his slanted headband.

Choosing her words carefully, Kaori chewed her lip with a stern expression before speaking. “You went kind of ballistic on me the other day,” she practically growled, disgusted. “And avoiding me for a solid day afterward made it sink in even worse.”

“I remembered I had stuff to do,” Kakashi lied as he scratched the back of his head nonchalantly. “And I was busy all day yesterday.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Her voice was almost unchanged, no real clear intonation present as if the question were more of a statement instead. “I might be a little hardheaded, but I'm not an idiot, Hatake-san.”

When she saw his eye had trailed to the ceiling and away from her, Kaori almost gaped, ready to attack him both verbally and physically. Instead, she took the higher road despite her fuming.

“I'm sorry if I did anything to freak you out, okay? I thought we were having fun.” As painful as it was, she forcibly stared at his currently averted eye. “. . . I mean, you're the one that wanted to dance,” she added with a small edge of disdain in her voice.

“Ehh, right,” Kakashi responded, still staring at the random invisible fascinating object above his head. “Come with me, I have something to show you.”

He motioned to the door with a finger before shoving the hand in his pocket. He waited until she turned back to the stove and flicked the burner off. Reluctantly, she took the lead and opened the door to the apartment, rolling her eyes in mild anger at his reaction to her lame excuse for a talk. As a precaution, he locked the door behind them then coerced her with a stare into the trek down three flights of stairs and around the side of the building to the back alleyway.

Kakashi made note of her expression when she finally realized he had stopped by the bicycle, a sign that she was supposed to be paying attention to it. Her green eyes went from the contraption to his eye, then wavered quickly back to the pale yellow set of wheels.

“. . . It's a bike.”

He nodded, brow raised at her perceptual skills. “Yeah, there's even a spot here on the back you could carry someone else or tote something around, I suppose. I figured it'd be something you could use to actually get out and about.” He wouldn't tell her that he had decided that it was also a sort of gift to her to make up for his anger issues.

She could hardly believe her ears. All the previous anger and mild hatred she had housed inside of her seemed to mellow out into nothing. “W–wait, you're letting me go out?”

Kakashi shrugged in response. “Under my supervision . . . or if you're out with Naruto, Sai or Sakura.”

She averted her gaze, staring instead at the sky. “It's nice, thank you . . .” Kaori admitted lowly, chewing on her nails. Kakashi could tell there was more to it than that. No one, especially her, was that mellow and unwilling to get out immediately and go once he had given the O-K.

“But?” he cajoled, bending over slightly with hands in his pockets to get a better glimpse into her face. “What's wrong with it?”

She turned her face back towards his direction only to be within inches of his face. “There's nothing wrong—AHH!” He noticed the even flush over her skin. “What happened to the idea of personal space?!” she asked haughtily, stepping back as he straightened back up to tower over her. The flush over her face grew even more, so Kakashi deduced his proximity wasn't the initial reason she had gotten so flustered.

“People that are anxious to get out and wander about don't sit around waiting when they've been given the key to go out,” the copy ninja explained. “Something's obviously wrong with it because I doubt you've had a change of spirit and actually enjoy staying holed inside all day long.”

“I don't—” she spoke a bit too quickly in defense, her eyes quickly finding their way to the ground. She heaved a sigh and murmured, “I don't . . . know _how_ to ride a bike.”

Blinking, the jounin felt a slight tinge of shame for putting her on the spot. “Oh,” was all he said, rolling his eyes to the sky and cursing the fact he had brought the thing all this way rather impulsively . . . and as a gift at that. “Yeah, well—”

Frustrated and embarrassed with herself, the girl kicked at the earth. “Well, it's not like it's _my_ fault. No one ever _taught_ me,” Kaori growled, ranting. “I don't expect you to teach me either. That would just be _really_ awkward.”

“Awkward?” he inquired, blinking down at her and still amused with the extreme flush over her face. “I fail to see how learning something from me would be awkward, but—”

“Ever heard the phrase 'it's like learning how to ride a bike'?”

Rolling his eye to the sky, Kakashi heaved a sigh, sweat collecting over his now-reddened face. “Point taken. Why don't you just ride on back instead?”

The phrase played over in the dirtiest part of her mind for a second. “That's just as bad,” she leered.

••••••••••

It was like sitting side saddle on a horse only with a wheel directly underneath. A balancing act. “Okay, I think I've got it.”

Though it had been on the upwards of ten years since he had ever been on a bicycle, Kakashi pushed off at a slow paced pedal, turning out of the alleyway and into a more crowded dirt street of people that appeared too busy to notice. Like dancing, he wasn't too embarrassed by the action. If Gai had been around, he might have even commented on how cool and relaxed Kakashi looked as he pedaled.

Taking her legs up to her chest, Kaori managed to sit completely on the grate-like seat overhanging the rear wheel. It wasn't until they veered off onto a less crowded street again that she finally spoke up. “Can't you go any faster?” the girl questioned impatiently, the wind blowing her hair slower behind her back than the speed she was used to.

“I could, but I don't want to mow people over,” Kakashi casually replied over his shoulder, his silver tendrils whipping past the normal spot they fell over his headband.

Finally to her satisfaction, he started at a more grueling, yet still relaxed pace once the buildings seemed to taper and they were met with vast expanses of grassland that she had never encountered before during her stay here. “All this land is Konoha's?”

“Training grounds. You didn't think we learned all our skills in a crowded city, did you?”

“Oh, I'm sorry, I missed the part where I was just supposed to know all these things after I've been shut away inside a city for almost a month.”

Minutes later on the next steep hill, Kakashi suddenly felt the resistance against his legs' pedaling decrease drastically. The fact he was heading up an incline made the abrupt ease seem completely illogical. It wasn't until the copy ninja braked the bicycle completely, turning over his shoulder to see Kaori sprawled out face forward into the earth. He rolled his only visible eye up to the sky, avoiding the glower she would undoubtedly be giving him in a few seconds.

“The idea is to stay on,” he coached mockingly.

“I _know_ what I'm supposed to do, you moron!”

Another five minutes past, and instead of sitting to the side, Kaori had awkwardly found a position with both legs normally on either side of the main axis of the bike. The embarrassing part was the fact this almost required holding onto something, and since her own set of handlebars were lacking, clinging to a certain ninja's torso was the only alternative she had.

“Where are we going anyway?” she questioned after many moments silence and countless acres of grass covered. “You're not taking me out into the woods to murder me cause you're still angry, are you?”

“I'm not angry,” he assuaged with a smile behind his mask.

Kaori piped up after a few moments' silence had passed. “Why were you then?”

Caught in a bind, Kakashi did the only thing he knew how to do to get him out of a situation—lie. “I forgot I hate that damn song.”

Kaori rolled her eyes and dropped the subject. She knew he was full of it.

••••••••••

“I can imagine riding a horse would be the same as riding a bike,” Kakashi pondered aloud, reasoning with her as he parked the bicycle against a tree by the river. “How did you learn how to ride a horse?”

Not happy with the current topic, the blushing girl folded her arms, watching curiously as he kicked the kickstand and the bicycle stood freely on its own. “I just got on one at Fukao-san's farm one day. They _know_ how to stand on their own though. _And_ they have four legs, not two wheels,” Kaori shot back, finding more logic in her train of thought than his way.

“Fair enough,” Kakashi concluded with a light sigh before taking the book out of his back pocket. Raising one of her thick brows, Kaori watched as he simply sat against the trunk of the tree and began reading.

She almost forgot she was mad with him, and the fact he had frustratingly avoided her advances to talk about the subject more or less made her want to quit fishing. Crouching to the ground, she sat to his right leaning over his arm to read a sliver of the page. “You always read the same book over and over like that?”

“Afraid so,” Kakashi murmured, pulling the book more to the left so she couldn't read. From the corner of his eye, he registered the considerable twist of her lips as she pouted in annoyance. Rin would have never made such an adorable face.

“And are you always stingy about making them for your eyes only?” she challenged in her throaty voice.

Flipping the page, he pretended to keep reading as he answered her, “Are _you_ always this inquisitive? I thought the asking countless questions was something children did.”

“I'm not a child, Hatake-san,” she practically hissed, cringing at the notion of being pinpointed as such.

He watched peripherally as the curtains of her chocolate brown hair fell over her face concealing her annoyed stare. “Last time I checked, you're underage.”

“Doesn't make me a child,” she voiced sharply. “Do I look like I'm six to you?”

“You can certainly act it at times,” Kakashi argued with a tired tone to his voice, his eyes straying from the same line he had read three times over now. Kaori clicked her tongue in protest.

“People fail to realize I'm much wiser beyond my years . . . stop _looking_ at me like that!” Balling up her fist, Kaori hurled it into the side of his upper arm after she saw the raised brow and judging glance he gave. “Case and point! All anyone ever does is laugh. And no, I'm not trying to be an insufferable, conceited brat. Everyone just . . . _thinks_ I'm impossible and spoiled since it's how I come off at first glance.”

Kakashi shrugged, the mocking punch not hurting in the least. “Perhaps you _shouldn't_ come off that way then. People would take you seriously. . . . Though the wiser beyond your years bit is sort of a stretch.”

“Oh, yeah?” Kaori crossed in return. She flicked the spine of the book from where she sat with her thumb and middle finger. “The main character in the second volume of Icha Icha Paradise seems like he's incredibly perverted, but after you get into the story a bit more, the reader's supposed to realize that he's actually deeply flawed with a series of relationship issues plaguing his past and actually only pines after women the way that he does because he hasn't found anyone like the last girl he was with. It's a coping mechanism, and he doesn't really know how to properly love a woman since he claimed to be in love with that girl.”

Pouting a bit, Kaori let her tensed face relax after she realized her tangent had given her away. “Yes, I've been reading your novels. They're actually very wonderful.”

The jounin shook his head, closing his eyes and sighing in exasperation. “Maybe a little bit of an older soul for your age.”

“A _little_?”

“Two or three years, give or take. I thought I told you not to read my books.”

Smirking, she leaned back on her elbows, the grass crunching to the extra weight her arms gave against the ground. “The book says eighteen and over. I'm nineteen. _Hah._ ” Her gloating didn't amuse him. In fact, he didn't even respond with words or any movement of his face. “For as much as you read those in public, how come you're so ashamed of the content in them?”

“Ever heard of not judging a book by its cover?”

“Yeah, that age restriction on the cover has _nothing_ to do with the content.”

Kakashi actually laughed out loud, and Kaori wondered for a moment in her own hesitant laughter if her remark had actually been that funny. He didn't seem to be one of those people that would give pity laughs, especially that hard.

She wasn't like Rin at all, the more he got to know her. In the face, she could pass as her twin, but that tongue of hers was sharper than anyone he had ever met, even Anko. Suddenly he realized his heart was actually beating faster for no reason at all—laughing would never require so much cardiovascular strain. He pretended to resume his reading with a light chuckle still finding its way back from the depths of his throat.

It was odd, she thought, how her anger had subsided completely by just having a back-and-forth mock argument. Their relationship had grown to be like that. Bickering was almost required for both of them to keep tolerating each other. Kaori actually wondered when or how she had been able to function without their banter. The past day she had been in a mild state of depression, to put it bluntly. Having him around now was almost a necessity.

Rising to her feet, she towered over his reading form, blocking the sunlight that was pouring in over the pages. “Hatake-san, you gonna teach me how to ride a bike or what?”

It took him a moment or two to register her request before he glared up at her almost silhouetted form. Her flashy grin made him shake his head as he shut his book with a sigh. “Out of all the times I've taught kids, I never taught them how to ride a bike,” he remarked as he rose to a stand.

“Does this mean I can I call you ' _Sensei_ '?”

“No.”

••••••••••

She was utterly exhausted and fed up. Balancing on a contraption with wheels was a lot harder than people made it seem. The hardest part was the brakes. Most bikes she knew of had brakes incorporated in the pedals . . . simply pushing in the reverse direction made you stop. Forgetting almost immediately that her brakes resided by the handles, Kaori had careened down a grassy slope and ended up veering the bicycle in a sharp right and into the earth. It was as if she had intentionally wrestled it to the ground, but the burning scrape from the grass down her right leg told a different story.

Ashamed, emotionally compromised and after forty minutes of attempting to balance and move at the same time, Kaori demanded that they quit and that the copy ninja take her home so she could dress her minor wounds. Her hunger made her temper worse, and Kakashi eventually complied. Unlike Naruto who was never willing to give up, Kaori gave in easily.

“You did fine to start,” Kakashi encouraged as they backtracked their way from the training grounds to his apartment. “It's always hard to begin with.”

“Like _hell_ I did fine,” she growled, arms awkwardly wrapped around the lower part of his chest. “Don't candy-coat things for me.”

He shrugged against her chin, her head resting on his left shoulder. “Fine, you were terrible.” He felt the light smirk between her cheeks grow into a wide grin.

Moments more passed as they zipped past nothing but vast grassland and the occasional forest line. Not content with the silence, Kaori broke the ice with the worst possible notion in mind.

“Hatake-san, can I ask a favor?”

He glanced back at her over his shoulder only catching a glimpse of long chocolate tresses trailing behind them. “Depends, but I suppose so.”

Kaori chewed her lip for a moment as he pedaled them down a sloping green hill and up another smaller one. “Just . . .” She winced, thinking of the alternative she would have to endure if he didn't comply. “You gave me a scare when you disappeared all day yesterday. Promise me that you won't abandon me?”

Though he was slightly shocked from the sudden change of subject let alone the nature of what she was asking, he didn't show his minor unease. “Ah, it's kind of in my duty as a mission right now, so I don't think you have to really worry about that.” He gave a light laugh, suppressing his tongue from saying anything more to further add to the awkward conversation.

“I meant after this crap is over,” she put in nearly immediately upon hearing his response. “I know I'll eventually quit being your mission, but I just want to know I'll have someone who still gives a damn whatever happens to me after this.”

Pedaling still, he kept his eyes on the sky, a small yet significant ounce of guilt consuming him. “Yeah,” Kakashi replied dryly. “I'll still be here.”

His heart froze and his lungs stopped when he felt her wrap her arms around his upper chest. His shocked state almost let her pull him back towards him, and it was all he could do to make his brain coordinate his feet to keep propelling the bike forward.

“Thanks,” she whispered nearly inaudibly against his back.


	15. XIV: Unveiled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _It was a big mistake to let me have my way in the first place._  
 _It was a big mistake to let me memorize your face.”_ —Copeland (“Second Star To The Left, Go Until Dawn”)

Naruto was grinning ear to ear. Not only was Kaori allowed to come out and spend time with him, but Sakura actually got a day off from working in the hospital. His bright blue eyes stared helplessly at the shining pink strands of hair on her head as she walked alongside him. “Lee-san was rather disappointed I wasn't going to be around today,” Sakura told him, almost frowning in guilt.

“He's in the hospital?” Naruto inquired, confused as Kaori padded alongside, totally clueless on the subject. “When did that happen?”

“He and Gai-sensei were up to their own tricks, like always,” she groaned, hating the way men decided to act sometimes. “. . . Look, it's Sai.”

Sure enough, the black-clad ANBU was sitting on the roof, drawing pad open with a landscape of his view lightly sketched on the paper. Both members of Team Kakashi raised a hand in a wave at him. Kaori's wave was a lot more energetic and enthusiastic; she hadn't seen him since she was brought to the village. He rose a brow at her insane grin, unsure of how to take such a greeting. “Hello,” he called down simply. Making a few more lines with his pencil, he closed the pad of paper and easily hopped down off the roof to the ground below. “It's been a while,” he added to all three of them.

“Have you been on a mission?” Sakura asked peppily, almost too chipper for Naruto's liking. Scowling, he went along with her curiosity. “It's been a couple of weeks.”

“Reconnaissance work,” Sai informed. “For ANBU, you know.”

“How is that going?” the kunoichi prodded further. “I mean, ever since Danzo . . . I'm sure it's more lax than what you were used to.” ROOT hadn't exactly disbanded since Danzo's passing, but his own special private missions were obviously not of importance to the unit anymore.

With a light shrug, the pale boy spoke softly in response, “We still have as many things to do in the ANBU itself. Kakashi was actually giving the unit lots of instruction before he resumed missions with his own team, so we've been following his advice.”

The discussion continued for a while as the group of four continued walking along the cobblestone street. There was an elite team in the Village Hidden in the Clouds, but for the most part, Kaori was still so confused and out of the loop with the current topic that her mind wandered elsewhere, eyes taking in the surroundings. Everything still seemed foreign even though she had been down this street multiple times since her arrival in Konoha.

“He doesn't show his face in ANBU, does he, Sai?” Naruto asked curiously with a crazy grin over his visage.

“Idiot!” Sakura growled. “ANBU is all about concealing their faces with masks on _top_ of their normal attire. What made you even think he would do such a thing?”

Clasping his hands behind his head, Naruto pouted, eyes looking in the completely opposite direction of Sakura's judging glance. “Geez, Sakura, you've been just as curious about the whole mask thing as I've been since we were assigned to him as his students. Give me a break . . .”

Kaori blinked, turning her attention from the rooftops back to the three walking to her left. “You guys mean he's never taken that mask off around you guys?”

Exasperated, both Sakura and Naruto shook their heads. Kaori found it difficult to believe.

“Well, he hasn't around me either, but it's not a big deal, right? Why don't you just try asking him?”

“Did that,” they responded in unison.

“Taking it off yourself?”

“Sort of tried that,” Naruto groaned.

Kaori rose a brow, still perplexed about how odd this situation was. How many years had they actually known Kakashi, and what in the world did he have to hide? Did he have some sort of obsession with keeping his face unmarred? Bad teeth? An allergy to pure air? “Why don't I try doing something? Tricks, jutsu, anything?”

Sakura and Naruto exchanged a glance, shrugged, then turned their heads toward her as if expecting some sort of further explanation.

Kaori paused for a moment, twisting a lock of her brown hair around her finger in thought. “A sleeping genjutsu,” she finally responded a several moments later. “I know a few and I was always pretty good at genjutsu techniques.”

“You won't get anywhere with it,” Sai remarked calmly as they rounded the corner onto a less crowded road.

“I happen to be _living_ with him in case that escaped your keen notice,” Kaori huffed in mild retort. “I haven't practiced my range of jutsu for some time, but I can guarantee I can pull _something_ effective out.”

“He's in at least three bingo books,” was all Sai responded, rousing a surprised glare from the girl.

“ _What_?” she screeched, coughing before looking to Naruto and Sakura for some sort of confirmation. “He's lazier than dirt; I've barely seen him bat an eye at anything, much less whip out a kunai to attack someone.”

“Kakashi-sensei can fight with his brains and his brawn,” Sakura murmured lowly under her breath. “Face it, it's hopeless, and Sai's right. There's no way you'll be able to get around to seeing it. Neither Naruto or I have and we've known him for four, going on five years.”

“Seeing what?” a familiar lazy drawl inquired from the side road adjacent to their right.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto and Sakura chirped in unison, smiles masking their previous secretive words. Sakura smiled past the new arrival of her lofty silver-headed sensei and greeted his companion with an equally big smile. “And Yamato-taichou, how have you been?”

Opening his mouth to speak, Yamato's words were swallowed as Kaori, who wasn't too keen on keeping their side-mission under wraps, immediately rose her voice despite the man beside him she didn't know. She pushed her way to stand directly in front of him. “Hey, what's your face look like?”

Mildly perplexed, Kakashi chose his words carefully before answering her. “Well, I'd say it matches my body . . .”

“Can I see?”

“My face?”

“Yeah.”

“You're looking at it now, aren't you?”

“It's hidden beneath that mask.”

“Ah, right.”

Noting that his senpai was trying to shrug off the subject, Yamato stepped into the conversation. Knocking the back of his hand against Kakashi's arm, he smiled simply at the rest of the group, his eyes finally landing on the brown-haired girl in front of them. “Senpai, you're not going to give me a formal introduction? I assume this is the one that you were telling me about, correct?”

Shaking his head as he remembered his manners, Kakashi motioned his hand between the two of them. “Ah, right. Wood, meet Storm.”

_It would be like him to change the subject that quickly,_ Kaori thought, pouting almost. However, blinking, she took a moment to understand what the introductions meant before eagerly thrusting her hand out to shake Yamato's. “Whoa, mokuton, _no way_!”

Yamato took her hand in his with a smile and light laugh, finally putting a name and description Kakashi had given him to a face. “Afraid so. I'm not the first in the village that's had it, however. Ranton though, how about that? How does that work?”

“Same as yours, I'm sure. Water in the right, lightning in the left,” she grinned, releasing his hand and waving them around as she designated each one.

“Ah, except water in the left for me!” he practically chirped, thrilled to have something in common to talk about. “Yamato's my real name. Uh, I mean, actually—”

“Code name,” Naruto and Sakura muttered aloud in unison. For as droning as they sounded, the two of them grinned at Yamato's immediate flustered happiness at merely talking about the subject.

Laughing, Yamato rubbed the back of head, smiling sheepishly at his teammates' interest in letting strangers know each and every little thing about him. Kaori stared blankly at him instead. “Ohhh, _you're_ the interim guy.” Her words slipped out almost as an afterthought as she recalled Naruto's description of their other 'frightening' leader. “You're not scary-looking at all . . .”

“That's what you think!” Naruto hissed at her under his breath, sweat collecting at his brow. “He's actually bat-shit crazy!”

Simultaneously, Yamato was staring Naruto down, his eyes slightly widened in a zombie-like state. “Crazy?”

Before Kaori could register the expression over Yamato's face, her blond companion had found a decent hiding spot behind Sakura's equally rigid form.

“Maybe a little creepy,” Kaori admitted under her breath but not low enough for Yamato to catch wind of her comment. Laughing at her reaction to his tactics, the ANBU focused his attention on their previous subject.

“It's rare I meet someone with an elemental bloodline,” Yamato told her. “I mean, we have clans with crazy eye techniques, but those are everywhere. You and me . . . we have the _real_ special techniques,” he added lowly under his breath. Unseen, Kakashi rolled his eyes at his junior's rather biased and demeaning assessment.

With a weak smile, she bit her lip, staring at Kakashi reading his book out of the corner of her eye. “Did I mention I hate that I have it?” she asked Yamato who seemed almost taken aback. “It's given me a bad luck streak for years,” she further explained.

It figured, he thought, as Kakashi had told him her misfortune of being targeted merely because she had the gene. “Be thankful you have the full bodily capabilities for it,” Yamato soothed. “It's actually a pretty huge blessing when you get out there. Plus, hotshots like this guy over here can't copy them like everything else,” he added with a smile, jeering a thumb in Kakashi's direction.

Confused, Kaori opened her mouth to speak until the silver-haired jounin placed a hand on her shoulder. “Ah, another story for another time, Yamato,” he spoke lowly, eyes closed in slight creases of a mock smile. “Just because she's living under my roof doesn't mean she knows all my secrets.”

“I'm currently trying to crack the secret of the mask,” Kaori explained eagerly, rolling the shoulder his hand still had a firm grasp on.

Yamato tried to look for some unease in his senpai's eye but saw the same, normal collected look. He was one that had cracked said secret during their ANBU days, but honestly, he hadn't cared one way or the other about knowing. “Good luck with that,” he smiled weakly at her, watching as she peeled his gloved hand off of her shoulder finger by finger. He rose a brow at her fidgeting.

“Ehhhh, Yamato-taichou,” Naruto drawled, lips almost pouting. He was still clearly annoyed with his scare tactics. “You being around doesn't mean that you're going to be subbing in for Kakashi-sensei while he's looking after Kaori-chan, does it?”

Blinking, Yamato gave a shrug. “Tsunade-sama hasn't mentioned anything. I just got back from an ANBU mission only yesterday.” Naruto clucked his tongue, but Yamato wasn't sure whether he was disappointed at the notion of not being able to do missions or the exact opposite.

Kaori growled. “Stop,” she hissed under her breath, flicking the exposed knuckles on his hand with her fingernail. Displeased, the jounin finally pulled his hand back to his side, giving her a challenging stare. She merely stuck her tongue out and shrugged away from him.

Watching with a keen interest, Yamato smirked as she sidled past him to resume her conversation with the younger lot. He could practically feel the attitude Kakashi had spoken of just oozing out of her as an aura of cunning and danger. His eyes veered back to Kakashi's face.

“What?” Kakashi deadpanned almost immediately.

“You still haven't gotten any details about the enemy?” Yamato asked under his breath in an unbelievable tone of voice. “I was sure you would have made her talk by now.”

Kakashi wasn't about to tell him that he had been preoccupied with her in other areas . . . drama seemed to plague his life instead of rationality. “It's complicated,” he admitted, hoping it would shrug off the conversation. The exasperation in his voice made Yamato smile.

“ _Apparently_. Don't tell me your aging is making you go soft, too.”

Brows low, the copy ninja actually forced a hostile yet hurt stare on him. “I thought you respected me.”

Yamato's teasing smile manifested itself into a heavy laugh.

••••••••••

The rest of the day went by in much of a blur. Though the younger lot spent a few hours together, an emergency call for Sakura to go help out at the hospital ended their date. Unbeknownst to them all, the day had rolled on rather quickly, and the sun had begun to cast an orange glow over the entire town of Konoha.

Kaori was rather efficient at boiling water and pouring it into the store-bought ramen cups that Kakashi bought especially since it was almost the _only_ thing he bought anymore these days. Cooking a meal was apparently too much effort when it was two people to feed instead of just one.

Letting the steam billow from each cup, Kaori waited until both had cooled down before she mixed in the package of flavorings. Inviting him to join in and eat with her would be a moot point, she figured, seeing as even though they did eat together, she never actually saw him eat. There was nothing but an empty container or dish moments after she had finished herself.

“It'll get cold,” she egged Kakashi on, trying to see if he would at least bite and attempt to eat in her presence.

“Alright,” he merely responded still reading the same volume of Icha Icha he had on hand for the past few days. The girl frowned when he didn't budge an inch from his seated position on the windowsill.

Sifting the noodles through the sticks and into her mouth, Kaori's thick brows lowered even more than normal over her eyes. Chewing and swallowing, she chose her words carefully while maintaining the same penetrating gaze. She was particularly fixated on the prominent jawline still visible under the thin, stretchy navy material.

“Are you a robot?”

Kakashi, noting her gaze on him, wasn't at all taken aback by the obvious oncoming question. “Pardon?” he still responded, simply unsure of how to answer.

Setting the chopsticks through the noodles in the cup, Kaori slumped in minor relaxation. “I mean, I never see you eat. Robots don't need food to live, they just _sustain_ themselves by recharging overnight with sleep or whatever.”

Kakashi blinked once at her before responding with a somewhat normal response to the question. “I do eat, and I'm not a robot.”

But it wasn't normal enough for Kaori.

Pouting, she glowered angrily at the dry, uninteresting response he gave to her out-of-the-ordinary questionnaire. “What do you hide underneath that mask then?”

“Naruto and Sakura didn't put you up to this, did they?” Kakashi responded, almost too chipper for Kaori to immediately respond.

“N–no,” she stammered under her breath. “You heard the conversation with Yamato-san earlier. I'm trying to crack the secret.”

“And that's too tough for anyone to even _chip_ , Kaori,” the copy ninja almost boasted. The fake smile shown by his closed eyes made the heat rush to her face, and she couldn't tell if it was out of embarrassment, anger, or an awkward flustered mixture of the two.

Frustrated, Kaori quickly ate the rest of her meal in silence, chewing fiercely and swallowing a bit prematurely. She chucked the empty cup and chopsticks into the trash just by the refrigerator while Kakashi turned his attention back to the book. His cup of ramen sat on the counter still, the steam almost completely blown away.

“I'm going to take a shower,” she practically growled, debating whether or not she should spit in his ramen just to spite him. It would be a perfect present for his difficult nature.

She didn't even notice that he had raised his hand in acknowledgement before she slammed the door behind her and turned on the hot water as fast as she could.

Kakashi wished that the hot water would somehow oddly _cool_ her down.

••••••••••

When she had reemerged from the shower, he sat in the same stoic position, reading the book. However, Kaori noticed that the cup was completely gone, and she wasn't about to doubt that he had eaten it while he she was sprucing up.

Her hair finally dried after another hour, and though she hadn't spoken to him at all since dinner, the girl intended on letting him know she would need her “bed” soon. It was dark by now, and her pre-bedtime ritual of brushing her teeth was on the to-do list.

She was still pissed—angry at the fact he had to be so uptight about things especially with the people he considered to be the closest with. The fact that Naruto and Sakura had no idea either really picked her brain. All she could imagine while scrubbing her teeth with the minty paste was putting that sleeping genjutsu on him like she had suggested earlier.

The longer she brushed her teeth, the more she wanted to make her imagination a reality. She had been serious in intent on doing the deed beforehand, so what was stopping her now? Would she honestly be able to get backup from the others? Kakashi would know that something was afoot if more than one of them was around. And she wouldn't be able to do it in much of a public place either. The only time she had a chance to be around Kakashi in private was when they were in his apartment . . . like right now.

More and more, Kaori realized that if she was going to figure this out—figure _him_ out, it would be now or never. When she spit in the sink, she almost felt like she was going to vomit her nerves up as well. Instead, she chewed her lower lip, sucking in the minty flavor the toothpaste left in her mouth to calm her down.

What could be the worst thing that could happen?

She peered around the cracked doorway getting a small glimpse of his lanky form pressed against the back of the wall adjacent to the seat. His gaze was still attached to the pages of his book, and his main source of light was the nearly full moon washing in through the uncovered window.

Standing in the doorway, Kaori finally quelled the nervous fluttering in her stomach and performed a few small hand seals that she remembered in just seconds. As she felt the chakra rise up from her chest and into her throat, she brought both of her rigid hands together in a cup over her mouth. Slowly, a stream of cool chakra-laced air issued past her lips and she blew over her now-opened palms straight at her intended victim.

Just as he turned the page to reveal the next chapter, Kakashi winced slightly, feeling a random annoying small jet of cold air against his ear and clothed neck. It was a warm night and there wouldn't be a draft coming from the doorway. The sensation was actually almost familiar. Before he could open his mouth to ask Kaori what she had done, exhaustion hit him like a brick and his mouth fell open anyway into a yawn.

She caught a glimpse of his eye, his lids already heavier than normal. The slight furrowing of his brow told her that he was incredibly angry and probably shocked to what she had done. All at once, the girl saw his hands try to move from the book to form a release sign to get out of the genjutsu. In two quick strides she was at his side, leaning his head against the wooden back of the wall with one hand and pulling his resisting hands apart with the other.

A helpless groan issued from the back of his throat before his lungs expelled a heavy breath, and he succumbed to the forced sleep his mission had put him in. For a moment, Kaori stopped and stared at him, making sure he was completely under her sleeping genjutsu. When he gave no signs of consciousness and maintained the same rhythmic breathing, she drew back from him and coursed her fingers roughly through her hair.

Her intent was to quickly perform the strongest sleeping genjutsu she knew and to do it without him catching on. In terms of speed, it wasn't as fast as she would have hoped, and she knew he would remember what had happened before he fell asleep. Pondering whether or not to go through with the act of actually pulling his mask down to see his face, she paced back and forth beside the window seat.

Why _wouldn't_ she go through with it? He knew that she had put him into a sleeping spell, so regardless, she would be in some state of trouble when he woke again. Her heart thundered heavily behind her chest, and she found it extremely hard to breathe. He wasn't stirring in the least, and his breathing was even and slow.

After chewing her lower lip raw, Kaori came to grips and expelled a heavy, shaking sigh. She had _wanted_ this. The others would surely praise her no matter how much Kakashi was going to chew her out. Shaking her head, she knelt on the wooden surface of the windowsill directly in front of him. Her whole body on edge, she leaned forward, hesitantly raising her hands towards his face.

Her fingers gingerly touched the top of the fabric where it met the bridge of his nose. She didn't realize that she wasn't breathing. Eyes focused, attentive on the subject at hand, and it felt like ages past before Kaori managed to pull downwards slowly. Her green eyes staring hard, she watched as the form-fitting fabric receded down over his nose and cheeks, exposing flesh that she and rarely any others had never seen before.

She found the end of the scar over his eye, then nearly choked when she exposed his nose completely. A second hadn't even lapsed, her finger still under the material and dragging it downward. As gravity continued to lead her hand downward, she continued to expose every small amount of his face, taking it in millisecond by millisecond until—

Kaori gasped the quickest and sharpest intake of breath her lungs had ever held. Down over his face, her finger and the shrunken material froze just before his lips. Simultaneously, just before his entire face had become known to her, Kakashi grabbed the wrist of the same hand. Regardless of the fact that he was restraining her, she somehow found a subconscious way to pull the material down underneath his chin.

It felt like minutes passed as she drank in his face with her eyes. Wide, green, and shocked by the light of the moon, Kaori could have sworn she was staring at an angel. A white, surreal angel. His lips were perfect, flesh completely unmarred, and there was just enough five o'clock shadow to show that he would need a quick shave in the morning. His narrow jaw was the frame that contained the entire masterpiece that he never showed.

Unknowing how close her face was to his, she shuddered out the sharp breath she had just drawn in, her breath falling heavy enough over his face to cause him to slowly open his eyes. The last thing she needed to see was that naturally heavy and mismatched gaze. She wasn't even afraid for a second of what he would do for her eyes and brain were too busy memorizing each and every aspect of his face. Every place she thought there would be a wrinkle, there wasn't, and there were no other signs of age at all.

With heavy eyes, Kakashi glowered at her. Her gaze were paralyzed; her body was still. Easily, he could lash out at her, in a rage throw her off of him, then put her into a deep sleep until she forgot. Yet something about that face kept him there, and something about her eyes captivated him in return. The stillness between them and the air about them nearly choked him. Who was the last one that had seen him like this for this long? Granted, some times he didn't care like when he went to eat in public (a rarity at best), but this close and in this awkward of a situation, he didn't think anyone ever got this good of a glimpse of his face.

“I'm sorry . . .” Kaori whispered. It was so soft that if he hadn't looked at her mouth with the Sharingan, he wouldn't have been able to fully hear it.

His heart was hammering just as madly as it had been when he held her down on the bed. Those feelings didn't come with a sleeping genjutsu. As he had been tangled with her before and unable to move, he found himself in the same paralyzed state. She still held the bunched fabric between her fingers. He did nothing to push her away and didn't pull her hand away from his chin.

He trusted her.

“Your genjutsu is weak,” he berated coldly, and Kaori's gaze narrowed even more when she saw a sliver of his teeth and tongue behind his lips. The canines were a little longer than the average person's, almost like a dog's teeth.

She couldn't help but stare; he was pulling her in. Her whole body felt limp and tingling when she got a small glimpse of his scarlet Sharingan eye. He hadn't even meant to use it—the unusual flow of her chakra he saw riled him up in a way he didn't understand. It was spiked; she was undoubtedly excited, but he had never seen such a cool, mellowed color before.

“You—” the girl mouthed as her eyes closed, her hand going limp and falling from his chin. Though still in a weak fog from the sleeping jutsu she placed on him, Kakashi caught her and held her against him as she drifted into a heavy slumber. It was mere moments afterward that he closed his eyes, head swimming with remnants of her jutsu as well as the exhilaration, fear and odd contentment he found with her discovering a part of him that few knew.

The lingering effects of the dissolving genjutsu kept telling him he was exhausted, but he found whatever strength to pull her out of his lap and lay her softly on the window seat. Dizzily, he drew the blanket that was folded beside her head and covered her curled form with it. He grabbed the solitary pillow that she slept on and placed it under her head. His hand paused just inches from her head before his fingers tucked the few stray strands of hair over her face behind her ear.

The copy ninja knew she was already dreaming of the wonderful things he instilled in her head.

Without drawing back his own covers, Kakashi stumbled a few paces before falling face-first into his mattress and pillow. Eyes closed, he kept the mask down around his neck, breathing openly and deeply for the first time in many, many nights.

He only hoped that he could dream of something half as grand.


	16. XV: Capability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _So keep the blood in your head, and keep your feet on the ground.”_  
—Brand New (“The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows”)

_Spinning._

Her head felt the same as it had the morning after waking up the day she had been returned to Morio's house after the last kidnapping.

_Lilies._

“Sleep well?” a voice resonated in the room though it sounded as if it was miles and miles away from her. The side effects were the same—buzzing, lightheadedness, and an extreme fuzziness clouding her vision.

Sitting up, she smelled the faint aroma of hard-boiled eggs and sizzling bacon. Palm to her forehead, the flashes of everything that happened the night before came in heavy, shocking waves.

_Sunset._

The jounin caught the sight of one of her heavy green eyes behind her curtains of brown hair, glaring hard at her with only one gray eye. He saw the flush spread over her cheeks like the hot red glow of the skies he put in her head. Kakashi only hoped she was confused, and he was right—Kaori had no idea where reality ended and the dreams began.

Groaning, she fell backwards, head hitting the pillow while she glared at the ceiling. He chuckled softly to himself, scraping the food onto two separate plates and leaving them on the counter. He almost sauntered across the room to her supine form, thoroughly pleased with how well he had baffled her into silence. “Are you going to eat?”

Arms over her eyes, Kaori sighed, still flushing crimson as she peeked up at his completely masked face between the space her arms made. “You made my head hurt again, Hatake-san.” He towered over her, presence just lingering for a few painful moments before she caved into his stare and sat slowly back up.

_His face._

“I suppose this is when you ground me or whatever, right?” the girl sighed hopelessly, glowering with disgust up into his eyes.

Shaking his head, Kakashi actually laughed aloud at her remark. With an ungloved hand, he ruffled her already-disheveled locks of mahogany hair. “Actually, I do want to talk to you about something.” His hand fell from the crown of her head and she looked up at him for some sort of further explanation.

“Come eat first though,” he commanded.

She was looking at him with that dreamy look that he did _not_ want to see on her face. It was the look several women had given him when he unmasked himself, and he hated it. They never had the problem with his long canines like he did. Instead they ignored it and focused on his near-flawless features.

That look was dangerous. It meant they kept trying to come back—not that Kaori had anywhere else to go, but Kakashi simply couldn't handle it. His stomach flipped enough when he saw her or even heard her voice, and he didn't need to have anything mildly close reciprocate in her concerning him. On top of all that, he was constantly reminding himself of her age. She was somewhat right when she mentioned she seemed a bit older than she really was.

Even though last night happened, he still found himself shoveling the food down his throat when she wasn't looking. The hurt look on her face when she saw his empty plate and realized what he had done made him feel a mixture of amusement and betrayal.

••••••••••

He parked the bicycle under a tree. She had said literally nothing all morning.

Leaning against the trunk, Kakashi waited for some sort of response. He had taken his book out as he normally would have on outings like this but wasn't quite paying attention to the contents on the page. Kaori sat mutely at his side a fair distance from the tree. Plucking the rocks that littered the soil under the grass around her, she chucked them nonchalantly into the river instead of saying anything. The copy ninja was the first to break the silence.

“We haven't talked about this mainly because I didn't want to step on your toes about it, but I need to ask you something,” Kakashi admitted almost darkly, his single gray eye drifting from the page of his book over to the crown of her head. “And I need you to comply with me,” he added.

He watched as she stared out over the river and then tucked her hair behind her ear, twisting her lips before glaring at him just the same. Giving her shoulders a hard shrug as if she expected him to continue on, she widened her eyes, tilting her head as if to give him a sign to keep going. “Okay?”

The jounin wet his lips behind his mask, putting the book down before actually giving her full his attention. “You spoke to Morio about it, I'm sure, but he never gave me the details on these ninja that keep abducting you. Affiliations. Physical traits. Names. Knowledge of all this is definitely going to help in ensuring your safety.”

The first real words out of her mouth for the morning were rather harsh. “I don't see why you can't just kick the ass of anyone that looks threatening and comes near me.”

“We'll send assassins to go and find these people. I remember the territory. If they're stationed there, which I imagine so, they can't have strayed far.”

She almost cut off his last statement, annoyed. “They only ever kept me close because it was _temporary_. I recall them saying that. They needed to keep me as close to Kumogakure as possible.”

Kakashi rose a brow, perplexed. “Lightning Country?” he riddled the thought to himself. “You think they're stationed in your old home?”

Shrugging, Kaori sighed, already uneasy with the subject being conversed. “I don't know,” she told him. “It's definitely possible. They discussed it enough in the conversations I eavesdropped on. They're definitely not the same group of Yotsuki that drove the Raikage to suicide and went after Mama and me.”

Kakashi's eye widened, body rigid. “The _Yotsuki_ clan were against your father? _They_ were the ones that killed your mother—?” The wince over her face at the memory was reason enough for him to stop his questionnaire.

His mind reeled trying to piece together why they would have targeted her father. There had been talk of a power struggle within the nation around the time of her father's suicide, but most of it had been dismissed as mere rumor when he took his own life. No speculation of murder rose in the Village Hidden in the Clouds—the man had committed seppuku in front of a few attendants. It was well-known fact that in his final days his mental health had dwindled to practically nothing, but could it have been a result of fear over a possible coup? Slowly, he remembered at least one amidst the clan when they had met at the Land of Iron—one of the bodyguards to the Raikage was another storm user.

“Kaori, were the Yotsuki against your father because they had the same bloodline?” Kakashi finally asked her, getting a glimpse of the angry pout on her face. It made perfect sense. In those days, the Village Hidden in the Clouds was well known for distinguishing the elite. Storm users were of practical royalty and highest regard, and Kaori's father was supposedly the youngest of the family that held that status—the Takeshita family. That family line was direct and only the sons of the previous Raikages made it to the same seat. Another family line—no, an entire _clan—_ to boast of their equal stature was _sure_ to cause a struggle in power.

The Raikage had battled over an ultimate choice. Either he shamed himself and possibly overthrew his position and made his illegitimate daughter known, or he succumbed anyway and shared equal power with the threatening Yotsuki. In the end, the clan had found out the secret after his death—another storm user outside the Yotsuki posed as a problem to their complete elite-hood. She had been sought by them in order to keep the power in their favor.

He was entranced by her completely, dumbfounded by the fact that such a revolution had sparked in the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Ultimately, it was all due to her existence.

When Kaori's eyes met Kakashi's, she knew that he knew. He was perceptive enough and had been well versed in the history of the village; she was actually shocked how quickly he had come to the conclusion. “Yeah,” she responded moments too late, mouth dry like a cotton chokehold. “But the people after me aren't the Yotsuki . . . believe me, I would know.”

Baffled and momentarily choked for words as well, Kakashi took the information and tucked it in the back of his mind before continuing onward. “What about the people?” he inquired dryly. “Any physical descriptions or names would be extremely beneficial.”

Reluctant to answer, Kaori watched the river before hugging her knees to her chest. Talking about any of this wasn't her strong suit; in fact, it made her feel outright vulnerable, and she hated feeling that way. Finally after a few more moments of silence, she explained as best she could, her mind reverting to the past year.

“I met this one guy when he came into Doc's clinic as a patient. Some guys in town found him on the road . . . thought he was ganged up on by robbers. His stomach was lacerated pretty bad, and Doc gave him stitches and a cot for a few days.”

. . .

_“You mind getting me some more morphine for these stitches, girl?”_

_“Do I look like a nurse to you, Mister?”_

_“Cute enough to be one. Let me take you out after I get out of here?”_

_Rolling her eyes, Kaori ambled to the entryway of the room, leaning against the doorpost. “Doc, 'Stitches' is whining about the pain like a little wimp,” she called impatiently, jaw jutted out with annoyance._

_The swarthy-skinned stranger winced, craning his neck up to glower at her from his reclined position. “You owe me one now for that name-calling.”_

_“Kiss my ass,” she growled back, whirling around to face him just as the doctor entered the room._

. . .

“Doc made me go out with him to make up for my _'ill-tempered'_ manners,” Kaori scoffed at the memory of it. “He bothered me for a long time making me try to guess his name, where he was from, all that crap. I guess he was secretive for a good reason, too, cause he didn't want to be found out.”

. . .

_“I'm Junpei,” he finally told her, crooked grin directly aimed at her. “And I'm basically a rogue.”_

 _Unimpressed, Kaori sipped the drink before her while glowering at his hazel eyes with her flashy leafy ones. “So, were you asking for that slice job on your stomach then if you're a_ rogue _?” she sarcastically mocked with a disgusted childish expression._

_“Touchy girl. Who wronged you in life?”_

“You _did. I didn't want to go on a date with you to begin with.”_

 _Leaning back in the wooden booth, he folded his arms over his chest, dark brown hair cropping his face while he smiled. “Most of the time it's the calm before the storm with women, but I guess you're just one big_ storm _through and through, Kaori.”_

. . .

Now laying sprawled out on the grass, she stared up at the vast blue sky. Not a cloud was in its never-ending space. “I should have realized when he said it then that something was up. No one in the town knew my full capabilities . . . not even Doc, so it never really crossed my mind that some stranger would come calling around eight years after all that shit happened. Honestly, you think in that situation that someone you knew would have to give you away. I was just living life like no repercussions of my past could ever possibly exist, but I was _dead_ wrong.

“The whole thing was a complete act for Junpei to get me alone with him. That was the first abduction. He was working for some other guy that claimed to have some connection with the Raikage. He owed him something but never repaid the debt since he went off and killed himself. At least, that's the story he gave me—that I was basically due payment in lieu of what he couldn't fully have himself.”

She didn't look up at him, but felt his eye on her while she stuck her arm out, extending her index finger and tracing the line of the trees that was just in her vision. Knowing he fully expected her to continue, Kaori exhaled slowly before speaking again.

“His name is Ryusho, and he's nothing but a slick, weasly bastard. He has his methods of getting through to me, but most of the time I've always been too stubborn to comply so I end up causing more harm to myself by going against him. Crazy as it seems, I don't think he really wants to hurt me.”

Kakashi stared at her sternly. Certainly her intellect wasn't lacking, but he couldn't imagine why she felt as if the ones hunting her down wouldn't be wanting to cause her harm. “Crazy? Kaori, he's after your bloodline. There's only one way to get it, and that definitely requires hurting you.”

“Don't tell me that, Hatake-san,” she heaved out with a long sigh.

“It's only the truth,” Kakashi responded, blinking at her. “You're one of the most complex individuals I've had the pleasure of coming across. One moment you're willing to throw your life away and the next you think death is some easily avoidable fate if you just talk your way into reason.”

“This lecture . . . it's punishment for last night,” Kaori said, not even in a real question. Her expression was grim, borderline infuriated.

Though the jounin knew he had struck a nerve, he wasn't going to let up. “Your mouth is going to get you killed one day.”

“You sound like Doc.”

“I'm serious _._ ” His voice was edgy, eyes stern on her as she continued to avoid his stare. “Talking back to the people that have power over you or the ability to take you down is the worst thing you could possibly do.”

“And you have power over me, don't you? What do you ever do? Fuel the fire.”

“I'm not looking to kill you, Kaori. There's a difference,” Kakashi stated rather sternly.

Lips pursed, Kaori rocked forward and brought herself to her feet, completely ignoring his last remark. “I think you've worn out your welcome with the interrogation,” she growled. Luckily for him, her turned back kept her from seeing the immediate roll of his eye.

“What is it going to take for you to listen?”

“What is it going to take for you to start talking sense?” she hissed back abruptly. “Where do you get off telling me how to act? You're not my father, for the last time.”

His voice raised slightly. “That doesn't change the fact that I ca—”

In the heat of the moment, he bit his quick tongue. Kaori's ears perked towards the cut sentence, expecting him to continue. When the awkward silence continued past a few normal seconds, she took a series of steps towards the river. Her eyes stung with the reminders of the past and the quick way the conversation had careened down a worse path.

“—care,” Kakashi finally finished under his breath. He heaved a great sigh, groaning as he rose to his feet. In a louder voice he called to her, “Kaori, let's go back then.”

She ignored him, stripping her sandals as she approached the bank. With cautious feet, she avoided the bits of jagged rock that jutted from the muddy earth around her and found her way into the shallow water.

Instead of calling her name again, the jounin watched her keenly with his only open eye. He could detect the faint scent of the salty tears welling in her eyes and the increased perspiration in her palms as she dug her bitten nails into the flesh of her balled up hands.

Kaori didn't hear him when he approached, caught up in trying to get her mind off of all the irritating memories that had flooded her head. Her fixated gaze on the water wavered to the new pair of sandaled feet beside her. He stood on top of the water easily instead of getting his lower limbs wet.

“I'm sorry,” Kakashi spoke lowly, his gloved hand slipping down around the inside of her wrist, coaxing her fist to loosen into a limp hand once again. Her fingers naturally slipped into his while the lump in her throat grew more and more cumbersome. “Let's go,” he murmured again in the same tone.

Kaori let him pull her out of the water.

••••••••••

“Sakura said the color suited me, but I don't know.”

“Well, I'd have to say I agree. It's nice.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Folding the shimmering turquoise material up, Kaori placed the newly bought swimsuit in the basket of the bicycle, a light smile on her face.

Four days had passed, and oddly enough things weren't as awkward as either of them thought it could be. However, for Kakashi and Kaori, attempting to avoid an awkward air probably worked more than they realized.

They had met up in the second training ground, and the already darkened skies made Kakashi wonder if meeting up out in the open this late was such a decent idea. Still, he needed to weasel it out of her sooner than later.

“I've been thinking about it . . . and I finally decided what you're going to make it up to me for the stunt you pulled a few nights ago.”

“What, the interrogation wasn't enough?” Kaori snapped, a bit annoyed that he had even brought it up again.

“The 'interrogation' was part of my mission.” He almost split a grin over his mouth when he saw the heat wash over her face. “I want you to show me the extent of what you're capable of.”

“Capable of?”

“With that bloodline.”

She looked around, then back at him incredulously. “ _Here_?” she rasped out.

“Yes, right here.”

“Not _fair_ ,” she groaned immediately. “The information and the lecture . . . that was payment enough!”

His expression remained unchanged, easily buckling her into his wishes.

She rose a brow at him and looked around them at the vast expanse of field they were at and cliff with few trees. “This is just something so you can see all the 'cool' stuff that my bloodline lets me do!” Kaori hissed, throwing her arms out. “Plus, there's no water around here for me to work with anyway! I'd need more than I can spring up myself if you're looking for the _extent_ of it.”

He held up a hand and shook his head. “I'll handle the water source. And in a sense, yes, I want to see its 'coolness' for myself preferably _without_ your incredible rage backing it up this time.” She frowned, remembering the only time she had done it around him was when she had extracted revenge on Kira for killing Morio. Her heart ached for a moment before she shook her head and huffily refused, turning away.

“You're basically asking me to . . . _practice_ right here, Hatake-san. What, do you want me to be your apprentice or whatever? I've only ever had two 'masters,' so to speak. My academy and team leader, and Rai—” she paused when he started walking towards her. He rolled up the sleeve on his right arm and then tilted his headband up over his head revealing his Sharingan eye.

He approached her with a few more steps. “I'll never take on another student, apprentice, or whatever you want to call it . . . Naruto, Sakura, and Sai, to an extent, are it. Killing one of them was enough for me to hang in the hat on teaching anyone else any of my jutsus.” Blankly she stared at him as he said it almost painlessly before pointing to his red eye. “This is a bloodline, too, if you could fully call it one. I wasn't born with it, but I acquired it. It's an eye of one of Konoha's great clans. Maybe you've heard of it?”

“Rinnegan, Byakugan, and . . . Sharingan!” Kaori thought aloud, surprised and feeling stupid for not recognizing it earlier. She stared closer at it when he nodded at her.

“So, in a way, we're alike. Both of us have a bloodline limit. And I can tell you another way we're alike, too. Though you have to promise to let me see the extent of your Storm Release Jutsu. Deal?” It was like making a compromise with a small child to get them to do what you wanted them to do, and Kaori knew that was exactly how he was treating her, too.

Frowning, she stuck out her hand after slowly making up her mind to even put it there. He shook it with his own. “Deal,” she said quietly, curious to see what he had up his sleeve.

With his exaggerated faux smile, he held the palm of his hand out like he had shown Naruto just a bit over a year ago. “This,” he began before concentrating a Raikiri into his hands. “Is another way we're similar.”

The lightning burst out around him, encompassing his entire body from head to toe with a circle of white chakra around his feet connecting the bolts to the ground. He watched as her eyes took it in for a moment, wide and green, and after a few moments more, a huge grin split out over her face. “Oh god, SO COOL!” she screamed enthusiastically, instinctively reaching for it in his right hand.

His eyes widened when he realized she was stupidly trying to touch it, but then he noticed instead he was the stupid one after he tried to jerk back and found her practically taking the jutsu from him. “K–Kaori, you can absorb techniques?” She wasn't even wincing when she took the jutsu out of his right hand and held it in her left one.

Kaori rose a brow at him. “I told you . . . the Raikage himself taught me,” she stated lowly, closing her eyes as the lightning jutsu cracked all around her. “It feels nice,” she added. He was more intrigued with the fact that she could painlessly take an attack like that—because technically it _was_ an attack—and at the same time could maintain it so easily just like he could. Even when he absorbed lightning-based techniques from other users, it took a substantial amount of willpower and more or less hurt in the end. Clearly the Lightning Country's previous Raikage had passed down many teachings to his daughter. He blinked when she spoke again.

“Hatake-san, did you hear me? I said I'll show you,” Kaori told him, still holding the Raikiri in her hands and rotating it to see it from all angles. “Just give me a basin or shallow pool, that's all I need,” she continued, smiling at it. Kakashi didn't think it was odd that she was marveling his jutsu in such a manner, just puzzled at the fact that she was still able to hold onto it like that without having conjured it herself.

He performed hand seals at rapid speed and placed his palms to the earth, water erupting in a geyser-like fashion behind him before drifting out into a pool about fifteen feet in radius, thirty feet in diameter. She wasn't near as enthusiastic about his ability to also perform water techniques like she could since he had basically given her a toy of sorts to keep her occupied while he conjured the basin of water. “Does it hurt?” he asked, rising to his feet as she still turned the Raikiri over and over in her hands again.

Again, she rose her brow at him. “I told you it felt nice,” she retorted. “Does the fact that I can absorb it shock you that much?”

He shook his head, reproaching her. “Even I can absorb, but with a lot of strain. The fact that you're maintaining my same jutsu though . . .”

Kaori half smirked before walking past him, his Raikiri still in her hands. “Wanna see me put it to use? Even though it serves as something pretty to look at all on its own,” she added softly before slipping off her sandals and putting a foot on the surface of the pool that Kakashi had created. She was shocked to find out that the nighttime sky took away from the actual depth of it. The basin must have been at least seven or eight feet deep.

“You can use that for a Ranton technique?” he asked, bewildered. She nodded her head in response.

“It's in my left hand where my Raiton half would normally come out,” Kaori explained. “Though I'll have to manipulate the form, obviously.” She let her left hand dangle by her side, the crackling Raikiri ebbing slowly to a pulsating ball of rotating lightning. “Stand there though,” she added, warning him to keep his distance. “You even so much as touch the water, you're fried. I'm going to the middle just in case.”

Applying chakra in her step, she started on the water walking towards the center of the pool before turning around to face him. He was watching her keenly, almost like the Raikage had done countless times while waiting for her to perform her jutsu before him. Though it was awkward, she heaved a sigh, holding to her promise. Closing her eyes, she let his lightning-based chakra dance around and between her fingers before holding her right arm out at an angled position from her body. Three easy hand signs in her right hand were all she needed to perform before she let her hand outstretch over the surface of the water. “. . . Suiton.”

Kakashi watched with one eye closed, his Sharingan watching as the water from the basin beneath her flowed with chakra inside of it to her palm. The ball of lightning to her left lit up as he watched the water rise and encircle itself around her entire right hand. Her chakra level suddenly rose through the roof—for Kakashi, it was like looking at her chakra channels growing alight with a rapid blue fire.

Much like Yamato, she brought her hands together, but in a complete clap, palms and fingers flat against each other. The chakra between both the water and the lightning completely disappeared. It wasn't until she spoke the next word and opened her eyes that he saw it reappear again in a completely manifested form.

“Ranton,” she spoke calmly into the night air as her eyes flew open. Abruptly with great magnitude, the entire mass of her hair carried upwards from the forcible draft of pressure that emitted from her palms. Within a matter of seconds, Kakashi was watching as all the chakra manifested itself from her body in the form of ravens that took on the nature of the water and lightning together. A snaking black cloud swirled around her body and disappeared into the night sky, and the expected unearthly scream echoed throughout his ears like a painful shot through his body.

_Incredible,_ he thought to himself. _She nearly depletes the entirety of whatever chakra she has left in her body to create physical manifestations used in battle._ Clearly this is what the Raikage had done himself, only his chakra must have been astronomically higher as Kakashi wagered it took much more to manifest physical chakra wolves than it did to produce considerably smaller ravens. Though the sheer number of these birds probably outweighed the amount of wolves that the Raikage ever produced.

They swirled around her, maybe about twenty or thirty in number, and Kakashi froze, remembering the last time he had seen this she had doubled over and almost fainted from chakra depletion. “How are you still able to hold up without any chakra inside?” he called to her as she pulled small streams of water to come forth from the water source beneath her with merely a few movements of her fingers.

“There's a proximity I can handle,” she explained. “Any chakra formation that's about five feet away from me and closer is still technically a part of my chakra's channel . . . without being _in_ the actual channels . . . if that makes any sense.”

Kakashi nodded as a sign that he understood, noticing now how the birds were keeping their circles tight around her body. “Yeah, I get it. That's all I needed to see,” he told her. “Nicely done, Kaori.”

He started moving the headband around his forehead down to rest over his Sharingan eye before she spoke again. “Well, I wasn't really done yet,” the girl spoke with a grin. The small streams of water grew in volume as she said it, and Kakashi shot her a bewildered stare. “You said you wanted to see the _extent_ of it,” she added with a laugh.

Suddenly, he saw his Raikiri form inside her left palm again, only she was right, it had been manifested into another lightning technique altogether. The bolts and chakra circle found their way around her feet like his, but at the same time the spread was almost vertical. No. He saw it with the Sharingan—the lightning was coursing straight up _through_ her and into the unknown many, many feet above.

The small streams of water manifested themselves into large vortexes about the width of her body. Twisting and turning, they found their way spiraling upwards with the lightning technique, huge jets of water lit up by the cool white-blue electricity. Kakashi almost lost himself in the astronomical magnitude of it until he saw her body actually sinking beneath the surface of the water. Her eyes were closed as if she had lost all consciousness, and then he realized also that the ravens had gone up to the skies with the rest of them, no chakra left in the proximity of her body that she needed. “Kaori!”

Hearing her name, she opened her eyes to see him about to step out onto the water . . . surely he would be electrocuted on spot no matter if his affinity was for lightning or not. She held out a hand, eyes wide to stop him where he was before gasping a long hard breath. Kakashi watched as her entire body plunged underneath the surface of the water. “KAORI!” he shouted again, watching under the surface before the entirety of lightning and water above the surface reversed their course and practically imploded into the basin he had created.

His Sharingan watched the ravens finding their way under the water to their host, and the chakra pathways inside of her body lit up as clearly as they had been before. Effortlessly, she pushed her body off from the bottom of the small pond before floating to the surface, gasping for an even bigger breath of air once in the vicinity of oxygen again.

Wading to the shallower part of the water, she watched as Kakashi stepped in with his sandals a few feet in towards her, reaching his hand out to pull her out. “Are you alright?” he asked with both eyes wide open. “You—”

She took his hand and pulled herself to her feet, breathing heavily and wringing the water out of her hair and clothes. “I got caught up in the moment,” she admitted with a grin. “. . . It happens.”

Staggering towards complete land, she grabbed her sandals and sighed in exhaustion, falling against his side and not caring how wet she was getting his clothes. “Does this mean I can get another look at your face?” she managed with a grin.

Kakashi rolled his eye, somewhat taken aback by the abruptness of the subject. “Oh, you mean a legitimate one?”

“You're still sore cause you got caught in a genjutsu,” she teased through panting breaths as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Kakashi shook his head. “You realize I dispelled that jutsu the moment I felt it coming on.” He managed to pull the bicycle that had been resting on the ground up to a full stand before mounting it and helping her on the seat behind him.

She lifted her head to look at him over her shoulder, brows lowered in annoyance. “That's a lie, you—”

“Why else would I have stopped you mid-way?” Kakashi challenged before setting off at a slow pedal. Riding a bike was a lot more difficult with clothes all soaked up, he learned quickly. Kaori paused while she pondered for a moment before opening her mouth again to speak.

“But you didn't cause I kept on going,” she reminded him, her chin resting on his left shoulder.

“Only to put the genjutsu on you instead. Who said that was my real face?”

Groaning, Kaori tried putting some distance between her and him though it was nearly impossible given the proximity of the seats on the bike. “I've been with living with you for over a month now, Hatake-san. I don't see what you have to hide.”

He didn't have anything to hide.

She almost gasped when she emerged from the shower later that night for he had normal pajamas on, completely maskless. “Don't be so surprised,” he told her. “Like you said, it's been a month, and this _is_ my place. I miss having the luxury of living around my apartment with not having to worry about what others think,” he said clearly with his happy, closed eyes. His smile was genuine over his lips.

What others thought?

She still thought that he was absolutely gorgeous.

It was the same face she had seen that night.


	17. XVI: Impulse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _Thin-limbed, gorgeous green eyes, smiling, and I'm going straight to hell.”_  
—Straylight Run (“The Tension and the Terror”)

Most of the following days resulted in the two actually getting along despite all their differences. The majority of the conversation revolved around ninja techniques and chakra control, much to Kakashi’s surprise. For someone who wanted to drop the shinobi way, Kaori was rather insistent on talking about all things chakra after she had performed her ultimate technique before him.

“What’s the most bizarre technique you’ve come across?” Kaori inquired enthusiastically as they trekked off a busy street and into a near-deserted alleyway.

Kakashi picked his brain momentarily. “There were quite a few ‘bizarre’ ones . . . some from eccentric users, but most of them were crazy.” He thought a moment more before letting his mind wander to one of his former opponents, Kakuzu of the Akatsuki. “This one ninja had consumed the hearts of four other ninja that all possessed chakra natures apart from the one he was born with. He could use all five elements without breaking a sweat; it was unlike anything I had ever come across.”

Coming to a stop near the back of a shop, Kaori took shade underneath the small wooden enclosure that was attached to the back of the shop. A pail of water caught her eye as she twisted her lips and thought how such a being could exist. “So, he’s dead now?” she assumed, waiting for Kakashi’s nod of approval to answer her.

Something was suddenly unsettling with her, he noticed, her eyes instead of alight and ready for more information were dull and her brows low. “Why, were you expecting me to tell you something different?” he asked, wondering what could be up with her so quickly.

Immediately, she shook her head. “No, nothing,” she replied abruptly. “Just—”

Kakashi’s ears perked.

Kaori shuffled her feet underneath her before dipping her fingers in the pail of water. “So, people are able to consume others' chakra kind of like that guy, right?” she inquired before pulling a stream of flowing water out hovering inches from her palm. “How high can someone's chakra level get if they keep consuming it?”

Unsure of why the subject had shifted to such, Kakashi merely gave her an explanation. “Well, it's not really that common with the way you're putting it into perspective. Most people consume a small amount only to gain knowledge of the deceased user. I'm sure that one could have exponential amounts, but there are tons of complications. The user's body is only meant to hold what can be contained in chakra channels all the time. Why?” he finally asked after finishing his small lecture.

Shrugging, she cut the stream off from its source and turned her palm flat up to the sky. The stream turned into a sphere of water and then caved in as her chakra shifted it into a geyser. “Well, chakra level is supposed to grow with experience anyway, right? When I was first trying out my technique, I could only produce up to about four to five external chakra formations . . .”

She didn't have to say anymore because he knew exactly what she was getting at. Nights before he had easily seen twenty to thirty. A part of his soul throbbed with fear. He had seen her take down the boy, Kira, and to his knowledge she had killed the group of ninja that had attempted the fifth abduction. In order to do that, she had to have had some sort of experience in the act beforehand. The reason the chakra had disappeared from their bodies altogether was completely clear now.

“Kaori,” Kakashi spoke dryly, watching as the geyser ceased all motion and just fell over the palm of her hand, dripping back into the bucket beneath her. “That's not okay at _all_. Where did you even learn that?”

When he saw her eyes, they were completely glazed over like a thin layer of opalescent glass. She swallowed hard, staring right back at him for a few moments until she impulsively went straight for him, arms wrapping around his torso. It wasn't until he heard her take a shuddering breath that he held a hand to the back of her head.

He was mildly glad she was distressed—for one, the repercussions alone were something to be scared about, and secondly, she likely wouldn't recognize the sudden onset of palpitations resounding from behind his chest. What was _wrong_ with him? The same feelings that had plagued him after he had danced with her washed over him once again, only this time it would be foolish to shrug it off in anger and storm away from her.

There was a moment in which neither of them could respond. Time slowed to a painful snail's pace, and the soft wind that slipped by took a loose tendril or two of her long hair back behind her. Knowing that anyone could happen on them at any moment didn't phase either in the slightest. It was the first time she had felt security with someone since being under Morio's care. He had called her out on careening down a life-threatening path of mistakes, yet she didn't run away or get angry like many times before. She didn't want to let him go. He was the most human thing she had felt in such a long while.

Chills stippled the hairs up on his arm as he remembered to exhale. A part of him still wanted to draw away from her ensnaring character. Still, an overwhelming portion of him wanted to remain fixated, claim her with his embrace alone, keep her safe, hide her away from the horrors. The intoxicating scent of her hair filtered past his mask to fill his nostrils. For all the times he had smelled it when she emerged from the bathroom after a shower, it never dampened him this heavily. His eyelids found their mates like magnets, and in that moment, his sheer senses of smell and touch alone were so overbearing on his body that he felt as if he were sinking.

Kaori didn't want to move, but she was actually the first to incite it. Drawing back after squeezing him tighter for just a split second, she made sure her eyes were glued to the ground beneath them. “I always felt it wasn't right,” she admitted, reverting back to the subject of her chakra after what felt like days to her. “I should be in the clear from now on . . . right?”

Clearing his throat, the copy ninja gave her a shaky stare coupled with a response, “Yeah.” To promise she would never have to kill again was far-fetched. However, the path she was destined to go down based on her mother's desires when she came of age more or less put her “in the clear” whether or not she wanted to return to the shinobi way or not. She would most likely just resort to submitting to a husband that lived in the village, and the chance of one of those bachelors being a shinobi was next to none.

With a pregnant pause, Kaori shook her head, immediately resorting to an awkward grin. “Wow, talk about heavy stuff,” she scoffed at the conversation and her own ways. “What made me bring _that_ up?”

“It's getting late,” Kakashi commented dryly, his mind elsewhere as she kicked up dust and dirt on the alleyway path. The orange glow of the evening sunset washing over them obviously meant that dinner was soon, and Kaori's stomach was actually feeling more bottomless than normal.

“Did we eat all the eggplant?” she inquired as she started walking erratically, avoiding all the footprints in the dirt she saw with her feet. Kakashi rose a brow as he watched her actions, secretly wishing no one saw him with her until they got to the cobblestone road—at least there she wouldn't be playing such childish games . . . unless she thought it was going to be just as cute to not step on any cracks between the stones.

“We ate all the eggplant,” he confirmed.

Throwing her arms up in the air, she almost forgot her own little footwork game in the excitement. “Thank GOODNESS,” she yelled as they approached the end of the alley and the intersection that started at the main road. Simultaneously, she crashed into a cloaked individual with swarthy skin and brown hair beneath his hood. “Oh—sorry!” she exclaimed sheepishly, stifling a laugh as she knocked backwards into Kakashi's side. “Sorry about that!” Kaori apologized again, waving the man off as she caught his uneasy smile in response before he headed in the other direction.

He listened as he turned down the same alleyway, pausing against the back of the wall of the first building. “See what you made me do?!” Kaori chided playfully at Kakashi, hurling a loose, harmless fist into his arm. “You shouldn't have told me that.”

“What's so wrong with eggplant?”

“I _hate_ eggplant.”

“Well, expect more in the future. You're living with me, and I like it.”

“You have terrible taste, Copy Ninja!”

The hooded figure raised his head enough for his hazel eyes to be seen. He split a sinister grin over his darkened visage. “Copy Ninja, hmm?”

••••••••••

“So, she _is_ under their watch. Happy that we stopped by and got word from those farmer boys Masao and Kira were working with.”

“Letting them go on was a mistake, don't you think, Ryusho?”

“In time you'll come to see my course of action was for the best.”

“I still say we should have dealt with them. And one more thing I forgot to mention. It's Kakashi of the Sharingan,” the second voice growled, almost hopelessly. The man beside him appeared nonplussed for a moment. “That makes things a lot harder than we thought. He was in the Bingo Book.” His hazel eyes met the cold blue ones now staring at him in the shadows. “You're not going to be able to get her as easily as you wanted.”

Clucking his tongue, the man named Ryusho ran a pale hand over the taut black hair pulled over his scalp. It found its tail end in a long ponytail down his back. “It will be longer, yes. I still want you there under surveillance. I've no problem sending some more back with you, but keep sparse.”

“I'm fully capable of dealing with her and anything else getting in the way,” he growled, voice raising in anger. “I don't need any other help from—”

“Junpei, I cannot risk you going at it alone. And frankly, as much as I trust you to do the most intensive jobs, I cannot trust you with her after what you did the first and this past time.” Pausing, he paced away from his subordinate, getting out of the way of his hazel-eyed gaze. “Let's face it, you're far too rough with her.”

“You're just entirely too soft,” Junpei spat in retaliation. “There's only one way to extract it. She's not going to break and cave the way you want to use her.”

“It's worth a shot.”

••••••••••

Dinner was delayed a good few hours on account of Kakashi wanting to read more than eat and Kaori being angry with being forced to make ramen for the third night in a row. Boycotting the work, she had starved herself until Kakashi decided he was hungry enough to make food. To the girl's dismay, it was ramen on the menu again, regardless.

She was giving him that same look he didn't want to see any woman give him. After swallowing the mouthful he was chewing, Kakashi opened his mouth. “You don't use your eyes when you eat. You use your mouth.”

Choking on her food at his remark, Kaori swigged down nearly half of her water. He watched the flush spread over her face like normal before she lowered her head, slamming the near-empty glass on the table. “You're staring,” he continued, grabbing the noodles out of the cup with his chopsticks. “You're staring at me while I eat.”

“Because it looks weird!” Kaori admitted through chewing.

“Weird? I look weird. That's comforting.”

“I'm still not used to seeing you eat! Quit twisting my words.”

“Quit staring at me.”

It was far too nice for him to actually slowly enjoy a meal—a rarity he didn't get to take part in since he was always eating on the run or sneakily shoveling food down so others wouldn't notice his face. He wasn't about to give up the luxury of keeping his mask down. She would just have to eventually get used to it.

Eating the rest of their meal in silence, Kaori fought with herself to keep her eyes from even wavering towards him while Kakashi fought a fit of laughter over her struggle. In the time she was focusing her attention on the contents of the ramen cup, the jounin unintentionally in turn began staring at her. A boisterous quality was something she had in common with Naruto, but he noticed she also ate her noodles the same way he did. Most people at least took a small amount into their mouth before biting away the excess, but Kaori, like his blond student, easily continued sifting the entire mass of noodles through chopsticks into her mouth. For someone so small, he was shocked she could put it away so easily. It was almost . . . cute.

Finishing before him, Kaori rose from the floor and padded across the room to dispose of the paper cup and chopsticks. Immediately afterward, she locked herself in the bathroom, eliciting a confused, blank expression over the jounin's face.

The back of her head collided with the door when she leaned against it. She hadn't given her entire discomfort away by sitting there even if the air had been awkward between them. Biting her lip, she almost drew blood if it was anything not to breathe loud enough for him to hear. Hopefully his keen senses wouldn't detect her quickened pulse and sudden outbreak of sweat.

She wasn't entirely sure of what was going through her mind at the moment, but it all boiled down to the fact that she was going absolutely insane when she saw his face. Infatuation with good looks was something she had experienced before, however, it was nothing like this.

There was something about the way he looked when he spoke that wasn't like most people. Despite the fact she had only seen him around with a mask until recently, Kaori wagered she would never get a jolt of feelings all at once if it were any other person. What exactly was going on with her? She could _not_ be feeling like this. Most people wouldn't consider it morally right.

To eliminate whatever suspicious behavior Kakashi might have thought she had, Kaori emerged from the small bathroom. The shock didn't even fully set in when she found him face-to-face with her. _So much for going undetected with those senses,_ a part of her mind muttered rather darkly. All she could do in that moment was silently curse his abilities.

“You're not _upset_ over that, are you?” he asked her with nearly no intonation in his voice. His face was straight, hard features set sternly aside from a crooked brow. Her swimming kelly green eyes found a resting spot directly level before her at his collarbone. He had just rendered her completely speechless—more confirmation for what she didn't want to believe.

“Not you . . . just thought about Doc,” she finally lied in a hoarse whisper. She felt bad for using him as an excuse, and her hammering heart actually ached when she thought of Morio's shiny black hair, clean-cut and soft as it fell over his half-rimmed glasses. Sucking on her lower lip, Kaori pushed her way out of the bathroom past the small space his body left in the doorway. “I'm sorry for staring,” she murmured in a shy apology, trying to shake Morio's smiling, gray eyes from her mind. She cursed herself again for even thinking of him in lieu of facing an awkward situation with the copy ninja.

Her bone-straight chocolate hair caressed most of her body like a curtain as she curled into a sitting fetus position on the windowsill. Hands behind the base of her skull, she gripped the mass of hair and pulled it to collect herself once more. Kakashi only stared at her, partially angry with himself that he couldn't do anything further to assuage her depressed feelings. He turned from the bathroom doorway to the closet instead.

And then it hit him.

“Talking helps,” he suggested calmly, completely oblivious to the fact she had pinned her minor episode on something else than what was really bothering her. “You talk a lot about other things.” Kaori realized that he was now towering over her. He wasn't there before, and she quietly pondered to herself how caught up in the moment she must have been to not realize he had crossed the room to stand beside her.

“Yeah,” Kaori managed in her throaty voice, relaxing the grip on her taut hair. “It's how I rationalize . . . most of the time.”

The jounin shook his head then bent over, a hand on his hip as he stared evenly at the crown of her head. “I'm open for discussion,” he plainly stated. “However . . . I think I know something that would take your mind off of it for a while.”

Eyebrows low, Kaori took in his words with confusion, wondering what he was possibly getting at. “Wha—” As she rose her head, she caught nothing but the glimpse of a shimmering turquoise color staring right back at her. The copy ninja held the swimsuit she had gotten with Sakura right in front of her face. “Swimming? It's almost midnight. Naruto and Sakura are probably asleep and—”

“Yeah, I know,” Kakashi responded, throwing the garment over her head. “I'll go with you.”

••••••••••

This was the  _ last _ thing she needed.

It was a bit surreal for her. Her mind was unsure of whether or not to take in what was happening, but perhaps the out-of-character qualities he was showing wasn’t something she should have been afraid to register.

Sakura had taken her out to buy a swimsuit like she said she would, but it would only be used so she could go to the pool when she and Naruto and maybe even Sai would be able to have some time off and go with her. When did _he_ ever factor into the picture of swimming with the lot of them? Did he _really_ own a pair of swim trunks?

Given the time she had been in Konoha, she and Kakashi really had begun to warm up towards each other as awkward as it was for her to admit it. Never had she thought her stomach would be doing somersaults over him though. She wasn't exactly sure with all that she was currently feeling that she wanted him to see her with just a swimsuit on.

As if he read her mind, she heard his voice call to her, “It doesn’t take that long to put on a swimsuit.” It was coupled with a faintly heard rock tune someone was playing nearby from outside the changing room. The tiles on the floor were cold and wet from the day’s travelers’ trekking through from the pool into the dressing area and back. She wagered the entire environment would be warmer and muggier in the vicinity of the pool though. The air conditioner caused this to be an extremely damp and cool interior.

She glanced down at the one-piece suit she had insisted on buying since she most definitely didn’t have Sakura’s charisma and wouldn’t even think of wearing a two-piece. Not like she needed to flaunt her body, anyway. Because of its color, she might have even blended into the aqua surroundings of the swimming pool given the late hours of the night. “. . . It feels weird,” Kaori started to complain. “Like a second skin, or something . . .” Maybe Sakura had picked out a size too small for her. She said if the curves of her body showed then it must fit. But did looking okay have to come at such an uncomfortable price?

“You’ll get used to it,” he called again as his voice echoed around the enclosed area and into the night sky. “Better get in now before we have to go back up to sleep.” She would actually rather do just that. _It would be so much more comfortable inside under a blanket where it wasn’t so cold and damp,_ she pondered to herself, shivering in the changing room. _Where the water doesn't puddle up over your feet when you haven't gotten wet in the first place._ Yet she didn’t want to be warm outside where he was warm and where the water was warm.

She brushed her hair back with long fingers, then grasped the long mass in one handful, cautiously stepping out from the women’s changing area and blinking unsurely into the steam. At least it was warmer, and now the suit allowed her to breathe. It wasn’t as stiff or rigid and cold as the environment she had just stepped out of. “It’s warmer than normal at night.”

“Because it’s cooler outside and the water’s the same temperature. It only feels cooler during the day because it’s hotter out than the temperature of the water,” Kakashi explained before she saw him turn around in the mist. He was standing in the water, turned around, shirtless, maskless, with both arms braced on the side of the pool as he glared at her. “What’s the matter? Come out.”

She wouldn't tell him the real reason for her apprehensiveness. Cautiously, she heeded his request, and the water around her feet went from being that cold icy feeling that was upon the tiles to a warmer and then hotter feeling as she got on the cement, nearer to him. The dim lights allowed the mist to break up a bit so she could actually see him, and as soon as he saw her fully come outside of the room, he smiled and pushed off the wall to wade further into the water.

As lanky as he was, he was as muscular as he felt beneath the navy shirt he wore underneath his vest. Scars of battles past littered his abdomen and back, and even his arms displayed a nice random arrangement of jagged pink lines. The seemingly no-nonsense man even sported a faded scarlet tattoo on his left arm. As weird as it was for her to see him like this (as opposed to the near completely covered copy ninja most of Konoha knew), she liked seeing someone who was so concealed all the time to be nearly fully exposed.

She proceeded to dip a toe in, her hair already clinging to her back from the moisture gathering along her body as she stepped into the pool area. It felt like a bath instead of a normal pool. “Are we swimming or bathing?”

He turned around, puzzled look upon his face as he tilted his head up and questioned her with confused eyes. “Hmm?” He cast a less confused glance at her as he intently stared, wondering, as she hesitantly slid her right leg into the water until it became submerged to her knee. “. . . Don’t tell me you need help getting in.”

“It’s not that,” she snapped almost too quickly in response before holding herself up over the cement’s edge and allowing herself to hover knee-deep in the water, hands braced firmly behind her upon the concrete. “The water’s almost as warm as my bath water. Either that or it’s too cold out here.” She had been concentrating far too hard on balancing herself and slowly easing herself into the water to notice he had made his way to her via the opposite side of the water. Inches from the dips of her waist, he grabbed her sides, tainting her virgin swimsuit with heated chlorine water. She managed a quick squall from being caught unawares, then fought her way against him briefly before being set evenly into the water, her feet firmly planted upon the slick bottom. Half her hair was now drenched as she stood about chest deep in the pool, hissing through her teeth at the sudden heated sensation.

Kakashi, perplexed, could only pause and stare before prying her clawing hands off of his chiseled arms—hands she didn’t realize were gripping so hard since her mind was bent on other more pressing matters such as the sudden temperature change. “. . . You really do have overreacting down to an art, don’t you?”

“I’m _not_ overreacting, Hatake-san,” the angered girl yelled before completely pulling her hands away from him and whirling away to dive underneath the water where she would stay for a few moments away from him. Her wet and heavy hair stung where it had just whipped against his bare chest before tunneling beneath the water’s surface and a few good yards away from him.

“Yeah . . .” he murmured lowly under his breath. “Yeah, she is.”

Unfortunately for her pride’s sake, he was right about her becoming accustomed to it because now she didn’t even dare think of the temperature. In fact, it felt natural to be in the element though she wagered half of it included her thoughts being channeled more into hostility towards her guardian instead. Kaori would have gotten into the water on her own, but it wasn’t as if that was the actual reason for her blowing the whole situation out of extreme proportions. She had been so completely shocked, embarrassed and timid of the feeling of him (having suggested the fact of the two of them go out this late, and swimming, no less) firmly holding her with nothing but a piece of thin form-fitting fabric about her torso. For Kaori, it was like a conspiracy that she was battling between her conscious and subconscious personas over what she really felt and what she was allowed to feel.

Certainly he hadn't tried to make a pass at her just now with that stunt of dragging her in. That was the source for her extreme reaction, however. She was throwing a fit—an attempt at rationalizing her feelings by throwing the blame elsewhere. Easily, she could shrug it off by thinking _he_ was the one who thought something of her in that way . . . Yes. He was pulling her into his game, trying to make her feel this way— _who was she kidding_? With this paranoid mindset, every single interaction the two had together would make her go insane.

She felt the butterflies in her stomach . . . there was _no way_ she could be falling for the copy ninja, Kakashi Hatake. The worst part of it was that he was a completely full-fledged ninja, grown, probably at least fifteen years her senior. _That_ made it a whole lot better to dwell upon . . . but it raised the nagging question of his age all over again.

She resurfaced slowly, near silently, as the curtains of her dark brown hair parted just enough for two glowering viridian eyes to peer halfway across the pool at his figure. As if the entire incident before had not just occurred, Kaori opened her mouth. “. . . How old are you?” she asked just loud enough, hearing the music reach her ears again, but with a curious intonation. He heard her but took a moment or two to register it.

Kakashi never met her gaze nor even acknowledged that she had spoken for a few moments while he waded around in the water. Eventually he settled with his back leaned against the vinyl siding of the pool. “If you can believe it, I’m thirty,” he replied normally before gazing at her with one single scarlet eye from his current position. He almost wanted to start singing to the familiar music in the background as he heard the crazed-sounding girls singing their high melodies, but wouldn’t lose the rest of his dignity with this one. Though dancing wasn't that much of a big deal in terms of dignity, letting her see him in the act was enough.

His age really didn’t bother him. He had maintained the maturity level of his current age and even then some since he was around the age of six when he first became a chuunin and his father died. Although to his dismay, the girl who was now swimming underneath the surface towards him, brown hair almost like a cloud of liquid, seemed as if she made his age an actual problem. He wouldn’t let it bother him too greatly, however.

Peeling herself out of the water, Kaori found a seat upon the cement, now a bit frigid after her body accustoming to the warmth and now feeling the cool night air dance about her. Thirty, she pondered, wasn't all _that_ bad considering she was nearly twenty herself. While it didn't absolve all the societal issues and immorality that came with what she was dabbling in, curiosity and flirtation took over as the clarity of his age somewhat assuaged the timidness behind her feelings. She _was_ allowed to flirt, right?

“. . . So, how much do you work out in order to be that muscular?” Kaori continued while wringing her heavy mass of long soaking hair out and purposely flinging her head around while claiming “I’m getting the water out of my ears” just to slap him with her long stinging locks. The jounin, nevertheless, refused to flinch or bat an eye. He only looked oddly upon her while pondering why she was so keen on asking these questions.

“I _train_ . . .” he said slowly, correcting her so she would better understand which word to use. Working out was such a boring phrase to use. Instinctively, he rose a brow at her that would perhaps only make her feel a bit more cheesy or embarrassed for asking such impertinent questions. “All ninjas train. A nice physique is along the lines of a bonus if you train well and hard.”

“And the dog tag?” she inquired further. Her eyes were on the glinting piece of metal on a chain about his neck.

“Identification,” he muttered simply albeit a tad darkly with dwindling patience.

Though tempted to make a joke relating him to a dog, she silenced herself with another question. “Well, what's the tattoo mean?”

Kakashi blinked, completely taken aback by the question. “Pardon?”

“The one on your arm.” She gestured towards his left tricep with her thumb.

The copy ninja glimpsed downward, sticking his arm out to admire the faded handiwork that one of the ANBU recruiters had done. “It's basically a brand. Only the elite ANBU corps get one . . . it distinguishes them as one of the secret higher-ups in the village.”

“You're an elite?”

“Was,” he quickly corrected. “My prime days as a ninja have long passed me. It's been about ten years since I was even stationed.”

Now bored with the conversation since she had her answer, her next actions proved to be in stark contrast to what she had been so completely freaking out over; she splayed her toes, outstretched her legs, then proceeded in nudging the befuddled copy ninja by swinging her legs at a steady rhythm, hitting him every one, two, one, two.

It hadn’t bothered him at first—just perplexed him—up until the point that the song playing in the background had ended and another song he couldn't quite put his finger on reached his ears faintly. Her feet began swinging, teasingly, in time to the music. He cursed himself when he heard her start singing it, her tone as if she were a siren and the lyrics all the more enticing and horrible to even think of listening to. _“Oh, ho, ho, it’s_ magic, _you know . . .”_ she barely sung out, but it was absolutely loud enough for him to hear it. The word made him cringe, tense up, then push himself off of the pool’s side to avoid any eye contact whatsoever.

 _Oh, no, no, it’s a_ conspiracy _,_ he thought sing-song like the music in a more paranoid and apprehensive tone, bitching at himself now as he found she had a stern look on her face as she swum out to him. He _knew_ he had pushed off too abruptly and conspicuously for her not to notice.

“Get tired of me pestering you _already_?” she called jokingly. “I thought you could hold out for the long haul, _Hatake-saaan_ . . .” If her voice wasn't throaty enough, the intentional added huskiness liked to kill him. She laughed that incredibly, dangerously enticing laugh until she finally realized that something was up with him.

Her brows were low, furrowed almost completely over those malicious green eyes, and he would give her anything at that moment if it just meant that she wouldn’t stare at him that terribly cruel way. Not now. Not while _“never believe it’s not so”_ continuously reached his ears. It was driving him mad, just the mere thought of it happening all over again—the thoughts, and having to suppress them. To make matters worse, the girl he couldn’t help but think about was standing right there, almost egging him on—or so _he_ thought. A conspiracy. It’s exactly what it was.

“Are you ready to go back up then?” he questioned out of the blue, hoping she would say “yes” so he could get away from the crazed music and he would perhaps snap out of it. That damned _M_ word. She had hopped down off the edge and proceeded to stalk him across the water slowly.

As he heard it sung again, his back writhed, and his teeth ground in such an unusual and wholly obvious way that she twisted her lips into an expression of abashment that had him backing up into the wall to get as far away from her as possible. He could even feel a sweat begin to break out though she wouldn’t notice that amidst the water droplets collected about his forehead. The flush over his cheeks and the raised pitch of his voice, however, would not be so hard to pick up on.

Certainly she hadn't scared him off with her flirting, Kaori thought. If he had caught on to the way she was acting, he would surely suspect her feelings. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Kaori asked incredulously almost to save face with a shocked visage. As an aftershock, he almost flinched again, and she realized that the firm grip his hands had on the vinyl siding behind him was not just from her words but from something else entirely. 

It was as if even when she were angry at him it made him go crazy—what the hell _was_ his problem—the problem with her and that . . . that _word?_ She was mentioning something about him being a fool, but Kakashi was too caught up in intently staring at her in that bathing suit, taking in almost every sopping strand of her long chocolate hair. He traced his gaze back to her entrancing green eyes wondering why the hell he couldn’t stop. _She_ was the magic, however, and contrary to his silly belief that the time before she had put a “spell” on him, it was apparent she had no magical grasp on him at all at the present time. Was it all in his head, or was he actually enticed by this young girl?

“There’s nothing the matter,” Kakashi persisted in telling her despite the fact the joints in his fingers ached from the hard white-knuckled grip. Apparently she saw it as well and managed to get a hand on his wrist, prying his fingers from their glued position curled upon the vinyl edge of the pool’s surface. Then she steadily repeated with the other hand while Kakashi battled against himself whether or not to scream at her as had been custom in the past to make her stop. But the music told him not to—let it keep going because he _wanted_ it and wasn’t satisfied with what he had now.

He hadn’t been satisfied the night he spun her onto the bed while she laughed freely into his hair.

Angrily, after finishing her difficult task of removing his clenched hands from their tightened position, she held both of his wrists in her own hands, shaking them. “You think there’s nothing the matter? _You’re_ the one overreacting, idiot! Did you see a ghost or what?!”

That glazed look in his eye suddenly made her drop the harsh, tense expression over her face. Her eyes felt heavy like she was about to collapse just as she had after he sent her into a slumber with his Sharingan. But this wasn't because of his eye; it was because her heart was thundering impossibly fast behind her chest. She was feeling everything all over again—the same feelings that she had felt right after dinner—only this time she knew by the heavy look in his eye that Kakashi was feeling something right along the lines that she was.

Before she knew it, his hand was about the side of her face drawing her towards him.

He had lost it. Kakashi couldn't verbally express everything that was possibly running through his head right now. In short, the situation was absolutely murdering him. Even though he quickly snagged her against his chest and pressed his lips against hers, he couldn't remember the last time he had actually kissed a woman.

It took her completely by surprise. He rarely ever lost his composure and was hardly the affectionate type, but then she came to the quick conclusion that she didn't really care. Eventually in the heated moment, she responded since there was really nothing that indicated that she shouldn't except for the fact that . . . he was her guardian, at most eleven years her senior, and an adult to her still politically correct age group of a “child.”

Shocked, Kakashi had half-expected his action to be a short impulsive moment that he had intended to pull away from immediately afterward and probably disappear from altogether, perhaps shooting her a happy smile to make up for his severe lapse in judgment.

Kaori had never succumbed to this sort of rapture before, but the fact of the matter was, she had never been this intimate with a boy, much less a _man_. All she could do was feel lost but rather exhilarated in the momentary lapse into hormonal insanity. She had only seen his face for the first time a week or so before; never had she imagined that she would _ever_ be kissing the same lips she believed herself lucky to see.

Once her mind took a rational standpoint again, she was the one to pull away, her cheeks rather nicely flushed and a horrified expression on her face; eyes wide, fearful, and green. Denying she felt anything for him, Kaori made up in her mind that her paranoia was more than justified—she was completely right when she assumed he wanted to be with her in that way.

She mustered all the might she could just to keep from screaming, but in turn Kaori felt her eyes slowly begin to sting from absolute astonishment and apprehensiveness. She wanted to scream as loud as possible, throw a fit, hit him, do _something_ to stop the awkwardness that was being served to them both on a silver platter. “You–you—” she stammered.

But he attempted to keep her from letting anything else out. “Kaori, it was impulse. Just stop thinking—”

”Thinking what?!” she shouted in retaliation, her voice at least ten pitches higher than her normal speaking tone as her already hot face grew even hotter. She slid her hand forcefully against the water, spraying him harshly in the face with the chlorinated water, eyes bewildered like a mad deer. “How can I think right now?! I hate you!”

His hand instinctively snapped out to grasp her wrist as she took the action of turning around to leave as quickly as possible. “Kaori—” he spoke a bit louder than intended if it would keep her there just a moment more. He noticed the music had altogether stopped and her hair was flinging left and right in the midst of her crazy fit. All she did was spin around viciously to start attacking him physically, beating him with her fists upon his shoulders and upper chest.

Kakashi would let her hit him all she wanted and all she needed. Normally he wouldn’t feel the hits at this level of pain, but mentally he felt each hit as a blow to his brain speaking to him about how stupid he was, how he didn’t think, how he acted impulsively and let desires ruin him and the ones around him. It wasn’t until she started sending the occasional and unintentional burst of chakra within her vicious fists that he winced. Although, it was ample time afterward that whether out of further frustration or tiredness that she broke down sobbing in front of him. The water, tossed about from her frantic attacking, receded into a calm series of ripples.

Her hands were shaky on his shoulders now, struggling to keep a hold of his firm muscles. Repeatedly, Kaori told herself she wasn’t finished trying to destroy him yet, but her incessant crying now told her otherwise. For a fleeting moment she even pondered drowning him then figured it would be better to drown herself at the moment. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you . . .” she sobbed, choking before quivering and digging her nails into his skin. All the jounin could muster was a weak stare to save some part of his dignity.

A moment or two later, Kakashi found the strength to hesitantly grip her gently by the upper arms and shoulders, giving her a firm shake that said “look at me.” It was another surprise to him and her both that she flung herself around his strong yet lanky body instead of locking eyes. She sobbed as she had that night he first understood her. As much as he understood her in her sense of loss, however, he had much more to learn of how she worked in other matters.

He could only curse himself now for scaring her . . . but he was all she had to turn to.


	18. XVII: Reciprocate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _Push the door, I’m home at last, and I’m soaking through and through._  
 _Then you handed me a towel, and all I see is you.”_   
—Dido (“Thank You”)

He was already awake when Kaori woke to the filtered sunlight peeking in through the curtains. Her immediate thought was to ponder the previous night's happenings—was it real or had it all been an odd, twisted dream that had been tucked away in the subconscious of her mind for ages and finally decided to come out?

“Morning,” Kakashi called from across the room, taking note that she was awake just from the mere shifting she did like she did every morning when she lay curled up on his window seat. His mask was up, and upon her rousing, he set down his book and immediately set out to the fridge, causing a clamor of shifting through food to start preparing for breakfast.

By now the realization had set in with Kaori of what had happened. How she had gotten back into the apartment with him and had feigned falling asleep while he took a shower—much like the first night she had spent here. Her hair and skin still smelled of chlorine, but that was the absolute least of her worries. Her hair a tangled mess as it was still wet when she went to sleep, Kaori rose as quickly as possible giving him a death stare of sorts as she paced with no words to the bathroom, flicking on the light switch and grabbing the toothbrush on the edge of the skin.

The copy ninja rolled his eye at her almost expected silence and huffing, then set to cracking an egg or two. His gaze went to the doorway while he heard her vigorous scrubbing accompanied soon after by a brush trying to make its way through impossibly long, tangled locks. He had just finished whisking the eggs into a conglomeration of pale yellow when she returned, still in pajamas. Back against the doorframe, Kaori shot him a calculating stare, arms folded over her chest.

Eventually, Kakashi looked back up at her with Sharingan eye closed, shooting her a quizzical look behind a stray silver tendril falling over his only seeing eye. “. . . What?”

Pursing her lips together, she chose her words carefully. “I'm just wondering the extent of how dirty you actually are underneath that _cool,_ unbothered facade that you fake everyone out with so well.” He avoided her directly and poured the egg batter into the skillet he had on the stovetop.

Finally, he glared back at her, brow raised still. “I beg your pardon?” 

She licked her minty-fresh teeth, rolled her eyes and threw her arms out dramatically to the ceiling. “ _That_ is what I'm talking about. How many people have you basically lied to with that easy-going bullshit? You just can't let anyone know what you're really like because you're far from being Mister Normal. Mister Normal wouldn't attack young girls—”

“Attack?”

“—as if you haven't had a woman in twenty years and still like to go for the pretty young things—YES, ATTACK. Face it . . . you're a lecher!”

Thoroughly amused in her attempt to cut him down to size (even though he really _was_ still beating himself up over being randomly impulsive and making stupid decisions), he tried to stifle a smile behind his mask. Instead he kept flipping the eggs over and over, scrambling them while he stared at her, eyes unwavering. “I can only apologize for freaking you out.”

“Freaking me out? Congrats, you just won the award for Understatement of the Year.” She made a mock thumbs-up sign at him while he still eyed her and then moved the eggs onto two separate plates. “I mean, you're just really full of surprises, and I wonder if it's my bad karma that I got stuck with you watching me this time. Cause there's no telling what you're . . . going to do . . . next . . .”

Kakashi was boring her down to the core with his stare as he approached her. Defiantly Kaori met his gaze, lips tight and unmoving and eyebrows jutted over her eyes as she stared up into his face. She was impossibly close, felt just as she did last night, and wondered if she was still dreaming. She felt her hard stare on him soften helplessly when she stared at his mismatched eyes and then lost all control of contorting her facial features to express her anger.

The true inner Kaori, the one that was undeniably and inexplicably falling for him (though she knew she wasn't allowed to), came through past the barriers of her physical defiance. Her toes started to levitate her whole body upward, just a bit closer to his face, and before she realized what she was subconsciously doing, the plate of eggs in his left hand found their way just under her neck. “Eat your breakfast, Kaori.”

He almost split a full-fledged grin over his mouth but left it as a light smirk as he watched the color of her agitated, slightly red face turn wholly crimson. Realization set in, and she snatched the dish from his looming form over her, letting out a high-pitched overreacting groan in frustration. “You're welcome,” he added, pulling his mask down to his chin and picking at his own eggs with chopsticks where he still stood.

To get her mind off of everything, Kaori submerged herself in dancing. She had asked Kakashi if she could spend the day with Naruto in hopes of a run, but she was disappointed when he told her he was away for the day with Yamato, working on chakra control.

“Chakra control,” she muttered under her breath, wondering why Naruto would need to be concerned about such. He contained the Kyuubi . . . his chakra control should be superior, she figured. Silently, she wondered to herself if it was Kakashi’s way of lying to her about why she couldn’t go out.

“I’m going out to get a few things,” Kakashi told her while she sat against at the window seat, a book in her hand. She waved him off without even looking at him. He had been gone to the market for a while for getting just a “few things,” so she wondered what was up that he or anyone else wasn’t bothering to tell her. Was this more avoidance for what had happened last night? She growled, shaking her head at the thought.

She hoped Sakura would come to call since she had been working at the hospital for quite a few days, and even though she was highly embarrassed and still bewildered about the incident at the pool, she was dying to spill to another girl. She could only wonder what the pink-haired ninja would think of Kakashi after she told her.

Spinning around the room to the music, Kaori eventually chimed in with her own voice singing in tune to the music. She sang an octave higher than the male singer of the band, whistling the tune when the vocals dulled down for an instrumental. _“You know darn well when you cast your spell, you’ll get your way . . .”_

He opened the door at the wrong moment. She was a fantastic dancer. He just opened the door at the entirely wrong moment. Kakashi watched the flush over her face grow to cover her entire visage and down her neck while he stood in the doorway, both of their forms frozen. Kaori stared at him with wild eyes before lowering the arms that were over her head. “ _What_?!” she screeched at his dumbfounded, stilled body and expression. “Stop staring at me! I dance all the time!”

“Yeah, uh,” he began slowly, trying to shut the music out of his ears as he strode a few paces to place the bag of groceries on the counter beside the fridge. “Dancing Queen,” he characterized her, making small talk.

“What?”

“. . . Dancing Queen,” Kakashi repeated again slowly, grinding his teeth as he took the carton of eggs out from the paper sack and opened the fridge.

Placing the styrofoam container on the top shelf, Kaori, still furiously blushing, watched as he closed the door in on his head, letting his neck and head remain in the cool confines of the cramped fridge. “Is it that hot outside?” she inquired back, ignorant on his previous remark. With closed eyes, the jounin inhaled the cold air of the refrigerator, the muffled music not nearly muffled enough. _“You can do_ magic _. . . you can have anything that you desire . . .”_

“Extremely,” Kakashi seethed, exhaling just as heavily as he inhaled. “Hand me the milk.”

When her fingers brushed the barely exposed skin of his gloved hand, he thought he was going to die. Flesh on fire from her simple touch, he held his hand around the carton of milk in the interior of the appliance for what seemed like days.

Kaori chewed her nails with one hand, fishing the rest of the contents out of the paper sack and crowding around the other side of him to put what was left in the refrigerator. Continuing to hum past the fingers against her teeth, she folded the paper bag up and tossed it in the trash.

The jounin debated leaving again until he could cool off, but it was actually almost too hot to bear outside, so he figured sticking it out in the apartment wouldn’t be too bad of an idea. He forced his mind to go elsewhere. “Stop doing that,” he groaned, finally closing the refrigerator.

“Doing _what_?!” Kaori exclaimed, befuddled as she held her nails between her teeth still.

“That . . . thing with your nails,” he commented. “You’re always biting them.”

Kaori scoffed, pulling her hand down from her mouth in embarrassment. “I can’t _help_ it, it’s just a habit,” she explained, agitated. Kakashi could care less about her change in mood for the song had cascaded to a fade out and the least of his worries were over.

He brushed past her, still, in a few strides, and took a large jar off the bathroom counter. As he unscrewed the lid, Kaori watched, perplexed, until he came towards her, taking her hand and sticking her fingertips in the gooey mess. “What the hell are you _doing_?!” she cried in protest, yanking her hand back, trying to shake off what he had dipped her hand in. On the roundhouse her body did trying to get away from him, Kakashi grabbed her other wrist and stuck her fingers in the jar the same way. “HEY!”

“Petroleum jelly,” he stated, screwing the lid back on. “So you don’t keep doing that.”

Blushing, Kaori immediately headed for the sink, wiping the gooey mess off her fingers. “Whatever, I don’t _think_ so,” she growled, glad that the oiliness of it actually rinsed off quite easily.

Even though she stayed silent and angry at him for a while, he had his day made when he heard her disgusted squall come from the window seat. He peered over his book from the bed to see her rigid hand against her mouth, tongue hanging out. “What the _HELL_?!” she screeched.

Laughing aloud, Kakashi lost all concentration with the Icha Icha book he was reading, his attention more focused on the fact she had bolted up from her seat to jump on his bed. His book was ripped from his hand, closed, and beat over his head a few times. Still, he continued laughing.

What should have probably hurt him really didn’t. He was much too concerned with the fact she was making his stomach do happy somersaults.

••••••••••

A couple days later, despite the fact it was cloudy early on in the morning and the skies were ready to open any moment, Kaori had a previously planned excursion with Sakura to go off to the flower shop and visit her friend, Ino Yamanaka, as she had recently gotten back from a mission with her team.

“ _Lilies_ ,” Kaori breathed, excited at the different colors that were around. Rather than just the plain white ones, there were some that had a yellowish tint and others that had an orange-pink coloring to them. She really loved the ones that had speckled patterns radiating out from the center of the petal.

“Ah, and really expensive, too! You want to buy a few?” Ino encouraged, looking for a sale. Sakura scowled at her eagerness.

“Ino-pig, quit trying to scam her,” she hissed. “You don’t have to buy anything, Kaori-san,” she added.

The pale-blonde girl frowned at Sakura for deferring her. Kaori noticed her hair was almost the same color as Masao and Kira’s. Her eyes were almost the same color blue. The fact her clan had been around the Leaf Village for so long was the only real reason she didn’t think of a connection automatically.

“Your hair is so long,” she commented in her raspy voice, smiling at Ino instead of letting her pout about her lack of buying anything.

“About the same length as yours,” Ino noted, admiring the chestnut brown color of her hair. “Took me a few years to grow it all out again.” She shot a glare in Sakura’s direction, wondering if she would take offense to the reminder of their battle long ago at the chuunin exams.

All at once, the low rumble of thunder rolled steadily overhead. Sakura sighed. “Already?” she sulked, hoping that the weather would have held off for a bit longer so they could be outdoors more. She had seen the inner walls of the hospital a bit too much these days for her tastes.

Not a minute later, sprinkling rain fell from the heavens and began increasing into a heavy downpour. “Ahh, Kaori-san, we should go,” the kunoichi insisted, taking her wrist. “I didn’t bring an umbrella and we don’t want to get stuck here for the rest of the day, so might as well make a run for it before things get worse.”

They bid Ino farewell as she began to pull the outside showcased flowers inside so the rain wouldn’t damage them. It was a matter of three minutes or so through heavy rain and oncoming lightning before the pair made the journey back to the exterior of Kakashi’s apartment.

Rapping quickly on the door, Kaori began wringing her drenched clothes out on the doorstep. She made a disgusted face at how much rainwater managed to come from her attire in such a short amount of time.

Opening the door, Kakashi could have only expected both of them to be as wet as they were. In all honesty, he was shocked they had gone out at all.

“I’m soaked!” Kaori cried, dripping incessantly while she stood in the doorway. Kakashi stopped her when she tried to come in the apartment, pushing her back on the doorstep.

“Leave your sandals outside. Thanks for bringing her back, Sakura,” he called, as he disappeared back into the apartment. Kaori rose a brow, looking behind the door to see where he went away to. “Want to come in?”

“No, but thanks!” Sakura called back before waving quickly at Kaori. “I’ve got to get dry myself, Kaori-san. See you!” Kaori waved at her, dripping still as she watched her pink-haired friend dart to the end of the way the apartment doors were on and turn the corner to go down the stairs and out of the complex.

He returned moments later shirtless and maskless, and the heat in Kaori’s face from running grew again for other reasons. “Uh—”

“Walk in on the towel,” he told her, pulling the door open and looking around into the pouring expanse past her and the railing into the village. She obliged quickly, ducking under his arm and dripping into the room on the towel he had just laid on the wooden floorboards. He shut the door behind her.

Kaori was tempted to shake the rest of the water off until she felt something fall over her head. Suddenly, the apartment was covered up by a towel hanging in front of her eyes as it draped over her hair. She reached up, scrunching the towel about her hair and dabbing her face dry.

“Thank—” she managed, her voice muffled in the towel before she felt more towel material wrap about the back of her shoulders. It pulled around the front of her, and she removed the towel on her head to look straight into his chest. “What are you doing?”

“You look like a drowned cat,” Kakashi simply stated, shifting the towel back and forth around her body to get the water off of her skin at the very least. “You’ll need to change after this regardless,” he added. Kaori flushed even redder when he used the towel to sweep down her arms to her hands, rubbing both his hands vigorously back and forth against her to get every last inch of her palm and fingers dry.

“And is there a reason why _you_ aren’t wearing anything all of a sudden?” she managed dryly, squeezing the heavy, wet mass of her hair into the towel she had removed from her head.

Kakashi stared directly into her eyes. “I wasn’t going to let the water you brought in get my clothes all wet, too.” Quickly, Kaori rolled her eyes to the ceiling as he brought the towel back around her shoulders to drape over her chest.

“I thought you didn’t like cats,” Kaori muttered while she balled the ends of her hair up in the towel, scrunching them as she did the top of her head.

The copy ninja blinked at her and then finally smiled as he gazed upon her not-so-pleased expression. “Well, this cat’s not like other cats, so I keep it around.” Her face softened when he spoke, and soon she blinked her eyes to look at him again.

Crouching down, Kakashi rested his hands against his knees and brought his face parallel to hers. He could tell she intended to say something, but whatever that was went completely out the window and into the unknown. Her shaky eyes fought to stay fixated on his as if keeping eye contact with him were the hardest thing in the world.

Her lips were still moist from the rain, and he wanted to kiss them all over again. Instead he looked back from her mouth to her unsteady eyes, noticing they had grown much heavier in just a matter of a few seconds. Kakashi’s eyes closed and his forehead fell against her own for a few moments.

The girl’s eyes closed instinctively seconds later. “Thank you, Hatake-san,” Kaori spoke calmly. His eyes opened slowly and he pulled away, not as satisfied as he wished he could be.


	19. XVIII: Willing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns everything about Naruto! I'm just using his universe to play around in. The song lyrics belong to their respective artists.

“ _And do you ever feel like you're alone?_  
 _And do you ever wish you'd be unknown?_   
_I could say that I have . . .”_   
— _Angels & Airwaves (“Everything's Magic”)_

Kaori was a woman possessed.

She had a right mind to ask Kakashi what exactly he did to make her incessantly think about that night at the pool and why she had so stupidly reacted the way she did at the given time. Though, Kakashi would have probably be more inclined to ask her the same question. The spell she had put on him was more and more maddening by the minute.

Finally, she had come to grips that she couldn’t deny her pitter-pattering feelings. Every time she had to talk to him, she did so normally but with an incredible amount of butterflies thrown into the mix.

She could feel his eye fall on her every so often from across the room. Biting her lip, she pretended to be buried in the book she had resting on her knees. She figured she must have read the same word twenty times in the past minute. Instead of reading, he was scrawling something on a piece of paper. More or less an update on her, the mission, she figured.

At last, Kakashi finished up whatever he was writing. Kaori listened as he folded the paper up and rose from his seated position on his bed to place it on the desk next to her. She pretended to mind her own business, running her thumb over the mass of pages she still had left to read.

Kakashi wondered how much of an idiot she took him for.

He leaned forward over the window seat, hand about one of the pipes framing the window as he stared out into the sunny day. “You should have gone out today,” he told her. “You stayed cooped up reading instead.”

Kaori chewed her lip, looking up from the page to catch his eye. “I guess it’s your fault for having such an influence on me,” she commented, flopping the book a couple of times in a gesture.

“Well, when I read, I tend to turn the page and read past the page I’ve already read,” he explained. “You haven’t turned that page for at least fifteen minutes.”

She froze when he pointed it out and silently cursed his perceptive skills. She should have known that he would have picked up on her actual lack of activity sooner than later. Her heart started pumping blood heavily into her face.

Sitting down on the other end of the window seat, Kakashi faced her. “Something on your mind?” he inquired, expecting her to lash out angrily for him calling her out on something that really wasn’t much of his business at all.

_A believable cover-up_ , she told herself. There was no way she would escape out of this one.

To Kakashi’s astonishment, she humored him and actually started talking. “I miss being a shinobi,” she admitted, actually telling an ounce of the truth. “You getting me to show you my storm jutsu made me realize how much I just missed the feeling of it.”

He mulled over in his mind what to respond to such an open subject, but before he could open his mouth, she had already begun to ramble.

“Mama was insistent that Raikage help me once she figured out my abilities,” she explained. “He was surprisingly warm towards me back then when I feared he’d be just this powerful man who wouldn’t want anything to do with a little girl. But . . . I guess it makes sense in retrospect that he wouldn’t shun me or try to put me off.”

For a fleeting moment, she stared back at him to see if he was paying attention. She caught his eye and quickly looked away again, thinking of what to say next.

“He was a generally kind man, though he could get a temper sometimes, especially if I was too much of a handful. His hair was like mine . . . his eyes were like mine. I suppose I didn’t think much of that when I was a child since I was just there under his instruction and not as father-daughter kind of bonding time,” she added with a bit of annoyance.

“Wolves were too massive for me to conjure up, especially as an eight year old. And Raikage always knew I liked watching birds anyways, so he let me practice making birds out of water. He said they were . . . _swift_ and could be as _dangerous_ as I could make them, especially in swarms. So I made them with water and then he taught me how to manipulate them further to add lightning . . . until I had a storm technique just like he did.”

Kaori leaned her head against the back of the wooden panel on the wall and adjacent to the window, her nose nearly parallel to the ceiling. She smiled softly, eyes closed, and exhaled just remembering everything that came with her ability. “Doc would get so scared. I would always just get this insane rush every time I touched water . . . I always felt the need to control it. And then I would use lightning chakra with it cause it was in my nature, and my veins felt like they were on fire, and my head felt so light, and I felt so free like I didn't have a thing in the world to worry about. He went _ballistic_ every time he caught me trying to do something cause he thought I was gonna get killed.”

She stopped, realizing she was laughing through her rambling words, and an equally happy but mere soft smile spread over Kakashi's face. “I told him, 'Doc, really, I used to do this all the time! It's nothing!' But he was always _so_ serious and absolutely _forbade_ me from messing around like that. Just like Mama . . .” He watched her as she bit her lip and rolled her head to the side so her forehead pressed against the window, and she opened her eyes. “I guess I never fully gave up being a shinobi, even after all those years.”

He vividly remembered the first day he encountered her spicy personality, saw her when he entered her room twirling a kunai to release her anger. The silver-haired ninja leaned forward over his knee to look at her, staring into her averted gaze. “I know, Kaori,” he spoke lowly. Somewhat surprised and moreover embarrassed, she blushed when she met his eyes and smiling face.

The jounin's smile lingered on his face a while longer until she licked her lips and regained her normal composure, staring again past the glass pane to the exterior of the apartment. “Do you ever feel that way though?”

“Like what?” he asked, humoring her.

She paused, closed her eyes and heaved a long, forlorn sigh before staring at him directly without the flush. “Like the chakra flow alone is enough of a rush to keep you high for years? Like you never want it to go away? Like an addiction?”

He immediately recalled when he had seen her so caught up in conjuring the chakra. Kakashi stared into her eyes, so light and alive and greener than any foliage that could possibly exist. Eyes that were windows to a soul he thought he knew in Rin, but ones that were actually the windows to a similar soul that instead resided in himself. He blinked both of his visible eyes to call him out of his small stupor before he responded. “Yeah,” he finally managed. “All the time.”

It was the truth.

_“Is it_ sick _and_ odd _to think that you've been getting on my last nerve because you actually get me?”_ He replayed the words she had told him the evening before her talk with Kira.

Was that the actual “magic” behind it?

She pulled the one relaxed left leg that hung off the wooden ledge up to her torso alongside her right one and leaned over both knees closer to him. She closed book on her lap and placed it on the sill beside her. 

“How come I've only seen you do a few jutsu then?” she asked, teeth showing in her smile now.

Brow raised, Kakashi simply stared into her eyes again, mind mulling on other things before he answered her nonchalantly, “Conjuring chakra in general, much less into a visible form, takes some energy from me. You and Naruto are alike in the respect that you have enormous amounts of chakra compared to mine. I can't throw it around as freely as you two can.”

Kaori wasn't expecting a response that big. “You sure it's not because you might destroy something with it?”

He shrugged lightly in response at her mockery, and it was his turn to stare again out the window. “That, too.”

The smile drifted off her face while it was her turn to take him in as he glanced outside. Her gaze panned over the strong features of his face, still in complete awe and dazzled with the way his mouth looked when he talked. The smallest motion of licking his lips made her watch more intently with fascination. When he spoke, Kaori thought it was the most pleasant thing just to watch his mouth move, so elegantly and fluidly against the hard, chiseled features of his face and body. His elongated teeth gleamed softly even barely exposed to the light.

Opening her mouth to speak again, she stopped from the enamor of watching his face, and then he looked at her out of the corner of his gray eye when he only heard the sharp intake of air. Kaori had no choice but to say something now, and all she could do was emit his name. “. . . Kakashi?”

It was the first time she had called him by his first name solely alone on its own. She felt sick to her stomach when she realized what she had done, then wondered what was so shameful about it; “Hatake-san” was much too formal considering she had been in his care for some time now. Similarly, his stomach bottomed out and his heart stopped for a moment. There was none of that formality that she had felt to use around him since she was first under his watch. It hadn't even changed when they were living under the same roof. No, it wasn't until _this_ moment after she had openly shared herself with him that it just naturally slipped out.

The raised intonation in her voice made him turn directly toward her. He saw the heat rising over her face reddening her cheeks and nose. Her eyes were between a puppy dog plea and a scared kitten. “Yes, Kaori?” he stated almost far too pleasantly. She looked as if she wanted to curl into a ball instead of being inadvertently forced into staring back into his gaze.

Her mouth opened and hung there as she watched his mouth again, lip quivering for a few small moments before she spoke through an even hoarser, cracked and squeaking voice. Finally, she brought up the real reason for her odd behavior. “What happened at the pool . . . I wouldn't mind it if it happened again.” In an almost defeated way, she hid her blushing face against her knees and arms, avoiding an awkward gaze. Her eyes stung, she almost felt like crying like she always did, and all he could to is stare at her with narrowed eyes, unsure of what to say.

In that moment, she had no age binding her away from him. The girl was just another soul that shared his pain-stricken heart. She had entrusted him with everything, and he knew that they were kindred spirits . . . she just didn't know anything about him.

“. . . My mother was gone before I can really remember, and my father committed suicide just like yours before I even turned ten,” he started after a long pause and a sigh, taking his turn to let her in on himself. “I never forgave him until I talked with him again when I died, and he explained every action he took before he decided to leave this earth and leave me all alone.”

Again he paused, sickened with the memory before finishing, his eyes still on her. “. . . I _died_ once, Kaori. I died, and I was brought back to life. I thought I would be able to see my teammates that had fallen before me and be with them and my parents. But it wasn't truly my time to go. My father told me I still had a reason to be here . . . and part of me is beginning to think that you're a fair bit of it.”

He saw the tear streaks on her cheeks as she tilted her head to look at him with bewildered and quivering eyes. “You died?” she asked, impossibly high-pitched as she forgot the last embarrassing thing she had even said said to him.

“I was killed, yes,” he stated again, trying to help himself from seeing those terribly green and gorgeous swimming green eyes. “But I'm as alive now as I was before like it never happened.”

Unexpected to him, she took his ungloved hand in both of hers and turned it over and over through her fingers. She traced the few visible veins over the outer surface, confirming signs of real life. She didn't need to challenge him because she truly believed he wouldn't forge a lie of that caliber.

Age didn't take away from the fact that he was more like her than she ever realized. A father dead by the same way hers had gone. No mother. No one left from when he needed them the most during the time he was growing up. Just like her. “Do you think Doc can come back to life?”

He sighed and actually slumped into a sulk while he continued staring into her face. “Logically, I should have stayed dead, but a lot of people were revived that day. It isn't what you're thinking it can be.”

Defeated by his response, Kaori shuddered out a sigh past her lips then kissed the palm of the same hand she held. Tears from her shut eyes rolled down her cheeks. His gaze remained the same on her, almost soothed by the touch she gave to him. Kaori held the lone right hand against her left cheek, leaning into the heat that resonated from his fingers and palm. Instinctively, his thumb curled about the apple of her cheek and brushed away the fresh salty tears that overflowed from her eye.

Unable to help it, Kakashi leaned towards her and merely kissed her on the lips without another word. It was more serene than their first kiss, most in part to the fact that she wasn't unwilling or frozen stiff in a tensed position. Her hands fell from the hand she held to her cheek as her mind went completely blank, swirling into nothingness. The eyes that were filled with tears just before felt as if they were rolled back completely in her head. She could only see the sparks of the chemicals firing signals in her brain.

He drew back just a second after she had gotten used to the feeling, her breaths now heavy and hot already over his lips. His shaky exhale led her to lean forward and into his lingering lips, pressing a soft kiss in return to his mouth. She pulled away as quickly as she had planted the kiss before she gave him another, and another. At last, Kakashi took control and snaked the hand he had about Kaori’s face into her hair. She breathed heavily through her nose and against his skin in an excited satisfaction.

She just let him kiss her that way, not really sure of where she was until she felt the wooden panel against the wall behind her come in contact with her back and head. Her mouth finally hung open just enough for Kakashi to part his lips over hers, taking her lower lip between his. He never knew Rin's taste, but could wager that she had never tasted like this . . . of sweetness and obvious woman yet laced with a brilliant taste of something wild and untamable. Kakashi had an affinity for _this_ girl, and not the one he had been unable to protect.

For all the times that he had heard that this sort of stuff didn't have an age limit, he still swore silently to himself that he was going to hell when he _did_ die.

Shivers went up Kaori’s spine when she felt his long canines brush over her lips. She was sure they were capable of drawing blood with just a little amount of force, but she wasn’t worried about that in the moments he held her mouth captive with them. When he pulled back slightly for air, she ran her lower lip along the edge of his top set of teeth, beckoning him to continue for just a bit more.

Obliging to her response, Kakashi raked his teeth along her lower lip. Her soft moan allowed him to gauge her satisfied response as he pressed another lip-locking kiss to her mouth. The copy ninja held her there until he felt all the air in his lungs expire, the organs burning for another breath.

His eyes opened as he drew back, and he found his free hand planted between her head and the window against the wall behind her. He wasn't sure how the position had shifted but didn't second guess his dominance in the situation in the slightest.

The bridge of Kaori's nose locked into place against his before she opened her heavy-lidded eyes once the feeling of his lips had left hers. “I'm . . .” she began in a whisper, “. . . glad that you're still alive.” Her lips turned into a smile when she found his mismatched eyes.

“Yeah,” he simply responded lowly.

Stomach churning with butterflies, Kaori's soft smile turned into a slight grin when his lips caressed her neck, pointed canines raking over her flesh. She squirmed slightly under his grasp from the tickling sensations, eyes fluttering closed. “Your teeth are so nice,” she commented subconsciously. Then she felt her face and neck grow hot with embarrassment at how silly her remark had sounded.

Kakashi merely chuckled against her skin, nipping at her flushed neck with his teeth and lips. The increased heat of her skin made him smile devilishly at her bashfulness.

“I guess this means age is out the window?” she gasped breathlessly after a few moments more, her stomach twisting itself into knots over and over again.

His rough hands brushed over her skin as his kisses made their way up from her neck to her ear. That nagging reminder resonated in his head—he was doing something completely unthinkable and immoral with the girl he was supposed to be protecting. She was his mission. But things had progressed much too far to turn back now. “Yeah,” he murmured against her ear. “Age is out the window.”

••••••••••

“Kurenai, I think I might have to kill you based on our last conversation.”

“Has talking actually _worked_?” Hoisting her baby, Hiru, up against her hip, she gave a light smile with her teeth behind rouged lips. “It's been at least a month and a half now. Really, I'm surprised that Tsunade hasn't gotten you doing normal mission work again.”

Baby Hiru stared fixated at Kakashi’s fluffy silver hair. Kakashi was still astonished with how much the child looked like his late father, Asuma. A small part of his mind wondered if the hair Kaori had been running her hands through earlier was too obviously messy, even to a baby. “I don’t know when this will end or how long she intends on keeping me on this ‘S-rank,’” he added.

“Did talking work?” Kurenai asked again, hoping for a direct answer instead of his typical way of beating around the bush with conversation.

Kakashi heaved a sigh. “What is it with you women and your need to be satisfied with knowing you had some part in an outcome?” Kurenai immediately laughed, shaking her head while she readjusted Hiru against her hip once more.

“So it did,” she responded with a smirk. Her red eyes were somewhat challenging when Kakashi looked at her again. Even with her satisfied and challenging stare, she could tell that something was seriously nagging him. She teased him, “Why _kill_ me over that?”

Expelling a sigh, Kakashi averted her gaze when he spoke. “What did you mean by the whole magic and spell comment?” he finally asked, almost letting out a displeased groan escape with the question.

Kurenai blinked, perplexed by his inquiry. “‘Magic and . . . spell comment’?” she repeated, making sure she heard him correctly. “What are you—oh!”

Carefully, Kakashi watched her with one gray eye as she recalled their conversation about a month prior. He watched her red lips curl up at each end of her mouth, the light white of her teeth gleaming softly between them. “You really think it’s magic, hmm?” she inquired with a daring edge in her voice. “Rin’s finally come back to call on you?”

Kakashi rolled his eye at how ridiculous it all sounded when she said it with a mocking tone like that. He almost felt bad for even bringing up the subject of Rin, especially in such bad taste.

“Never mind,” he practically scoffed, shaking his head. “It’s not like you put the spell on me _or_ her, so I have nothing to really worry about.”

Even though he was ready to leave, Kurenai felt a sense of edginess and unease with her comrade. Hiru tangled his fingers in her sleek, black locks as her voice called out to him before he left the room. “Kakashi, I saw her the other day . . . when she was out with your kids.”

His hand stopped on the door handle, expecting her to continue, curious of whatever she had to say about Kaori that was so terribly important to stop him from making an exit.

“She does resemble the Rin I used to see,” Kurenai added after a heavy pause. “But resembles is the key word. Though I can see how hard it must be for you. She just seems familiar, Kakashi . . . she’s not Rin.”

He thought of her green eyes, the fragrance of her lengthy hair, the mild taste of her lips and skin he had sampled earlier, that permanently hoarse voice and annoying, winded laugh. All of those things made his heart skip just thinking about them. “I know,” he responded. Turning to look at her over his shoulder, his creased eye gave away his smile. “She’s not.”

••••••••••

The girl in the copy ninja’s apartment perked up immediately when she heard the key in the doorknob. All at once a swelling mixture of happiness and nervousness swirled around in her stomach. Her head felt dizzy with glee at the notion of his return.

Kakashi caught a glimpse of her sparkling green eyes from across the room. It took a lot out of him not to laugh at how alert she appeared to be.

“Hi,” spoke Kaori when he entered the apartment. The smile over her face and crinkle of her eyes were the first signs of genuine happiness Kakashi had seen from her in a good while.

“Hi,” he responded back, walking from the door and towards his closet. She leaned back against the chair at his desk, watching as he unzipped his olive vest down the middle of his chest, took it off, and hung it on one of the empty hangers on the rack.

The jounin’s highly developed shinobi skills didn’t need to kick in to notice she expected something else than a casual greeting at the end of the day, but he honestly couldn’t think of the proper thing to do.

He stood and stared at her, watching and waiting for any other response she might give to his direct acknowledgement of her. Quickly, she grew embarrassed by the eye contact and bit her lip, turning her head and pulling herself away from the chair.

Kakashi let her walk to him instead, curious as to what she would do. She was clearly in a better-than-okay mood, most likely still giddy from the events that had happened earlier that day.

Standing with just inches between them, she held her mouth open to speak, but not exactly sure of the right thing to say. “Dinner?” she finally rasped out, eyes fixated on the navy fabric of his shirt instead of his masked face. Kaori chewed her lip when he raised a gloved hand to sift her brown locks through his fingers.

“Sounds good,” murmured Kakashi lowly, his hand sweeping from the hair by her face to the flesh of her cheek and neck. He was surprised she didn’t flinch, but wasn’t surprised to feel the increased heat resonating from her skin.

After a moment of feeling his touch, she pulled his hand down from her face, linking her index finger with his. “Help me?”

When she asked like that, there was no way he was going to say no.

Kaori helped him out of his gloves, and he let her pull him into the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind as she turned on the sink to wash her hands. She smiled when his hands encircled hers under the water, when she felt his masked lips against the back of her skull. “We can make eggplant,” she suggested in her low, throaty voice.

Kakashi blinked, pulling away from her hair. “I thought you didn’t like eggplant.”

“Some things grow on you,” she admitted, slipping out of his grasp with a smirk and opening the refrigerator.


End file.
